The Circle of Death
by Raven Young
Summary: Arisa is an orphan who moves to Konoha. A mystery with only one clue "Her past is stained with blood." Which way will the key turn? What, and who, are they up against? Leave it to Konoha's teenagers to fall into the biggest impossibility ever foretold.
1. Nightmare 1

**_"Your whole life, you have been plagued by demons. Chased to the brink of insanity as the first piece in a puzzle ofo 15 which shall encompass matters far beyond your meagre scope of perception. You open the circle. A bloody circle riddled with pain. The Circle of Death."_**

 _She stood inside the conservatory of a large palace._

 _Polished pristine glass doors and windows stretched floor to ceiling, mirroring her pale face from a miriad of different angles._

 _Sunlight poured into the room and reflected off the glass frosty glass tiles._

 _A grand, ornately decorated chandelier hung suspended overhead, a large canopy covering the sculpted, gilded ceiling._

 _So intricately delicately held together, every piece linked together so perfectly. Like a huge, delicate creation which could break at the slightest touch yet remained standing steadily for aeons._

 _A ballroom. She stood in a large, expensive ballroom belonging to an era of architecture long forgotten and riches long forgone._

 _The sound of approaching voices turned her to face the large carved mahogany doors._

 _But when she turned around she came face to face with ghosts..._

 _The tall, pale, long haired woman with arched eyebrows, and gracefully high cheekbones yet dichromatic eyes, and taller still, the dark haired man with aristocratic features and formal attire walked arm in arm, walking gracefully into the ornate ballroom._

 _Were her eyes deceiving her? What sort of cruel joke would her mind construct to bring them before her?_

 _Her throat suddenly dry, she gulped a few times before whispering, "Mother?...Father?"_

 _For before her were the two live and healthy faces of her dead parents._

 _Steeling herself she spoke again. "Mother? Father?"_

 _They walked right past her._

 _And confusion clouded her mind._

 _It was as though she wasn't even their._

 _"In your opinion, do you think the lord will actually make an appearance today?"_

 _Her mother's silvery voice sent her involuntarily back to younger days being lulled to sleep beneath the stars by her mother's soft voice, of her mother's laughter when the first flakes of snow would fall- sounds only met with for mere moments, small years in her childhood before they were so brutally torn from her, but which she treasured and preserved with perfect clarity till date._

 _As she registered her mother's exact words, her confusion only deepened. Her formal speech was confusing as well._

 _"According to Minato, the lord want's to entrust us with something." Her father said as they both found a seat and sat down._

 _The doors were pushed open again, and a tanned man with spiky blonde hair entered with a red haired woman next to him._

 _There was something odd about them. They were all dressed in formal attire- but not attire belonging to their century. Or for several centuries past for that matter. But not crude or primitive either. Merely strange to her untrained eye._

 _The blonde spoke. "How amusing. I had expected Kushina and myself to be the first to arrive. When did you arrive?"_

 _"A matter of moments ago." was her mother's reply, and she nodded a greeting to the redhead- presumably Kushina._

 _"Who else is coming?" Her father asked, as the blonde and his wife sat down._

 _"I do not think the lord is expecting many others; however I presume Fugaku and Mikoto will be here. Possibly Hiashi and Hisashi as well." replied Kushina._

 _She watched the whole exchange in front of her- nobody even noticed her, standing in the center of the room. She soon backed away to the far wall of the room, as more people arrived._

 _By the time people stopped trickling inside, there were a total of thirteen people in the room. She hoped to gain a clue as to what was going on as their incessant chatter died down._

 _Finally, an old man with long, spiky white hair walked in on a walking stick. He was followed by a man with long black hair and amber eyes with narrow pupils, and a buxom woman with long blonde hair._

 _Those present instantly stood up greeting with him with formalities._

 _The white haired man smiled, saying, "I thank you all for taking time out of your busy proceedings to pay heed to my invitation and assemble here. I trust you find yourself in hospitably comfortable conditions?"_

 _Everybody nodded._

 _The white haired man looked around at them lingeringly. His eyes, clouded with unrest and unease, seemed to find something he was searching for as his expression smoothed in peace. He spoke._

 _"I have grown too old to continue this alone. I must return to the Netherworld."_

 _His words were foreign to her. She understood nothing. But those seated did, and they were startled and surprised by his words._

 _"I am no longer able to keep hold of the legacy which was never mine to possess in the first place. Each of you present here today inherits it as the rightful owner. I entrust a part of it to each of you."_

 _He took a large case out of his cloak and moved around the room, stopping in front of everyone present- including the two who followed him inside- and handed them each an item covered in a black velvet cloth._

 _"But Lord Jiraya! You can't possibly expect us to keep these items?" her mother interjected._

 _"She is right. It would be like entrusting children with explosives." Another with dark ebony hair and similar eyes added._

 _Jiraya merely smiled, saying, "My time is over. It is your legacy now."_

 _As he said his last words, the sunlight disappeared, cloaking the room in darkness as the sun was hidden by the clouds._

 _Jiraya turned to look in her direction- not looking past her like the others, but actually seeing her. Suddenly, the air changed, filling with an ominous aura emanating from the white haired man. His lips curled back as he snarled in a low, inhuman voice. The skin on his face ripped off to reveal a toad-like demonic face in its place, a vicious look of bloodlust upon it. Coming closer to her, it hissed, "Give it to me!"_

 _She stepped back, only to remember that she was backed up against a wall. "I-I don't know what you're talking about." she said, fear settling into her bones as her heart lurched._

 _The demon opened its mouth and a long bulbous tongue emerged, smashing the portion of the wall next to her as it asked, "Where is it?"_

 _Slowly, the rest of the bodies in the room transformed into more demonic figures. Her limbs numbed in fear and confusion as her mother and father morphed into disfigured animalistic demons with razor sharp teeth._

 _Ducking under the toad's tongue, she ran towards the exit, jumping over the giant snake's tail that blocked her path. The demons followed in pursuit. As she felt a pair of teeth sink into her shoulder, she screamed and slammed her shoulder into the wall as hard as she could, releasing the demon's hold on her shoulder. Blood oozed from the wound. She couldn't stop, for fear of being caught again as she ran through dark corridors, snarls and growls following her along the way. She could almost feel their canine breath against her back again._

 _Shuddering, she ran into a closed hall filled with doorways. She was trapped. The only way out would be through the doors- assuming they led to more corridors. Running to the first door, she turned the knob to find that it was lost. She could hear the sounds of her pursuers drawing closer. She ran to the next door, which was locked as well. Running down the hall, she tried every door, rattling the handles in a panicked frenzy with the quiet plea for one to be unlocked; when one of them finally opened, and she ran inside._

 _The door led to an empty classroom. A familiar looking classroom, which she recognised as her middle school classroom; it was the middle of the night. Her blood ran cold with dread as she took in the scene. The classroom walls were stained with blood, and the floor was littered with the dead bodies of dismembered children. In the middle sat a young girl in the standard uniform, with long black hair and pale skin. Her hands and legs were splattered with blood. She was the only one alive. In her arms lay cradled a severed head._

 _This was a scene she was more than familiar with; she had revisited it so many times in her dreams._

 _The young girl's lifeless vacant face turned towards her. She stared into the eyes of a younger version of face dripped with blood that was not her own. Blood that belonged to the children who had been killed- the children that she should have been part of, but by some trick of fate was left alive. The very sight of that classroom, so many years later, still made her limbs go numb with fear._

 _The scene changed; they were still in the classroom, but the bodies were different. She identified them._

 _The girl sitting among the bodies was not a mirror image of herself. The bodies belonged to her loved ones- her cousin, her role models, the friends who she had become attached to in the past few weeks. She felt her breath quickening as she froze, a panic rising in her chest as she looked at the bodies. She felt as though she were drowning in the bloodshed as the ground beneath her seemed to crumble._

 _The bloodstained girl stood up and moved closer, her face suddenly contorting into yet another demon, and screeched, "Where is it?"_

 _She took a step back, moving towards the door as the fear overwhelmed her._

 _"You will be responsible for their deaths!" the demon hissed._

 _She turned and ran for the exit, only to come face to face with her toad like pursuer from before, a scream tearing through her throat._

 _The toad mover forward and said, "If you do not tell us, then we will make our move."_

 _All she remembered was extreme pain coursing through her body before she woke up in a cold sweat, a silent scream on her lips. A cat sat on her chest, peering curiously into her eyes._

 _She sat there staring at the cat for a few moments, panting heavily. She sighed in relief, recognising the cat._  
 _"Vladimir." she whispered in recognition, petting the cat softly on the head. "It was just a dream. A nightmare. I'm still all right."_

* * *

 **AU+OC fic. Not a popular theme, huh? But I like this story so I thought I'd keep it up here.**

 **I'll be brutally honest: It was absolute crap to begin with. I'm embarrassed to say I even wrote the pile of crap it was initially. But with hope, this update will make it much better. _Much._**

 **That being said, its still an unpopular theme. I hope you grow to love my OC like I do, if you continue to read, but really, I'm just grateful if you keep reading it.**

 **~Raven**


	2. Chapter 1

_**Four days ago**_

"I don't believe this! The old man hasn't even been dead six months and they're already taking over his house!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, walking into the coffee shop which formed their regular lunch spot on weekends such as that. "Stupid idiots think it's okay to invade Konoha territory."

"Technically its their house now. Whoever the inheritor is, its their wish if they want to live in the house or not." Sakura reprimanded, getting up to make him sit down rather than create the ridiculous scene he was.

Naruto sat down, saying, "Yeah, well where were they in the spring when he was on his deathbed! We were by Grandpa Hiruzen's side the whole time and we never saw these so called 'inheritors'."

The topic in question was regarding the large mansion previously in possession of Mr Hiruzen Sarutobi, which had recently been passed on to his closest relative in light of his death a few months ago.

"He's right! And even though some of his relatives visited- they weren't included in the will were they?" Tenten added from across the table, digging into her lunch.

"Astonishing as it may be, Naruto is right. It is rather insensitive to fill a dead man's house when you didn't have the courtesy to visit him while he lived." Sai said, chewing thoughtfully.

"Why is this even up for conversation?" Sasuke asked, annoyed as he tried to eat his own lunch in peace.

"Well I heard from Itachi that the new owner is moving in today! Stop looking at me like I'm stupid, idiot. Maybe if you hadn't left the house so early you would have heard it too!" Naruto said indignantly.

"And maybe if you hadn't left the house so late you'd actually be on time for lunch rather than arriving when most of us have already finished eating." Sasuke retorted.

"Wait you started eating without me? That's not fair!" Naruto said, only just noticing the empty plates on the table, before getting up and running over to the cash counter to get food for himself.

Once he came back, practically inhaling his food, he started to speak, when Sakura hit him on the back of his head and said, "Don't be disgusting, finish eating before you start talking."

Swallowing deeply, he quickly complied as the rest spoke. "Well they should just as well go to hell if they think we're going to sit around and let them take over his mansion like that." he said finally.

"Oh? Then what do you propose we do? You have something planned?" Sakura asked skeptically.

With a foxy grin, Naruto said, "You'll see."

* * *

"Remind me again why you think this is a good idea?" Sasuke asked, sighing with exasperation as he crouched behind the overgrown bush, next to Naruto.

In the end, after hearing Naruto's plan, nobody had wanted any part of it. But Naruto being Naruto had somehow managed to drag Sasuke and Sai along with him.

Which brought them to their current position in the gardens outside the mansion which was the former abode of Hiruzen Sarutobi. Crouched behind a large bush as they awaited the arrival of the new resident.

As for how they had gotten in- they had, in their childhood, spent many summers playing in those gardens, and knew every nook and cranny of the eerie grounds like the back of their hand. And even if the groundskeeper had seen them, they knew him well too, and could easily win him over once explaining their motives. At least, that was what Naruto's plan had outlined.

How Sasuke had allowed himself to be dragged along was a mystery in itself.

"Hey Sasuke! Do you think that's them?" he said pointing to a blue car that made its way up the driveway that led to the house. As the car came to a halt, two girls stepped out.

"Is that them? Is that them?!" Naruto pressed.

"Be a little louder why don't you." Sasuke muttered sarcastically as he looked at the two.

"Hey! Look at that!" Naruto shouted, even louder than before, trying to stand up (and give away their position behind the bush)

Furious, Sasuke dragged him back down and whispered harshly, "when I said a little louder I didn't mean literally! What are you trying to do?! Blow our cover and get shipped to the police station for trespassing on private property?"

"stop throwing a hissie fit and LOOK!" Naruto said, gesturing to the car in front of the mansion.

Turning his attention in that direction, Sasuke takes note of the man Naruto was frantically pointing at. Recognizing said man, his brow furrowed as he asked, "Is that..."

" Its Itachi isn't it!" Naruto said with excitement.

"But why on earth would Itachi be here of all places? With them? Wait - what did he tell you this morning?"

"He just said that someone's moving into the mansion and they're arriving today. He said that he knew them and they live in Suna."

" You didn't mention that part before." Sasuke said dryly.

"Well I forgot!" Naruto defended.

"Well if Itachi knows them then why are we even here? We can just ask Itachi about them can't we? " Sasuke said, exasperated.

" Who says Itachi will actually answer us seriously?"

" If the two of you keep talking it defeats the purpose of being here." Sai interjected. He had been silent until then, merely observing the house. "Can we assume that Itachi's 'friends' in Suna who he spends his weekends visiting include these people?" he asked.

Naruto and Sasuke consider his words, before nodding in agreement.

" Lets get closer to hear what they're saying."

As they moved through the foliage to arrive at a closer vantage point, they were greeted by the sounds of laughter- both Itachi's and the two girls'. From their position, they could now only see Itachi's face, but they heard his words.

One of the girls spoke," It's been sooo busy back in Suna- I swear, with this upcoming festival it's like there's no rest."

" You've been neglecting to spend time with your friends." Itachi said with in a falsely bruised tone.

"Aww come on I'm the one being neglected! My apartment hasn't born witness to the disaster that is you and Kakashi in weeks!" the same girl spoke.

" Oh stop whining its not like you're three year olds. You're grown adults with demanding occupations. Stop acting like children. " the second girl spoke.

Itachi shot her a glare, saying, "Rich words coming from a child such as yourself."

" I don't think sixteen years counts as a child."

" Next to 26, it does." the first girl spoke.

" The legal age for adulthood is 18." The second girl said dryly.

"Yeah yeah, you'll always be a child to us." The first girl said nonchalantly, laughing with Itachi.

They kept talking while Sasuke, Sai and Naruto exchanged confused looks. "I didn't know Itachi was even capable of having friends." Sai said.

"Now." the first girl- Cynthia presumably- spoke, saying, "Are you sure you'll be okay here alone?"

The question must have been directed at the second girl, who said, "I'll be fine. You don't need to stay here because of me. You're busy and so's Itachi. I won't take more of your time. Besides, I'm not completely alone. There's the housekeeper. "

" Don't think for a second that you're being a bother doing this. I'm here because you're my cousin and I care about you- not out of obligation. But I worry about you. If I hear of the slightest trouble, I'll be driving right back here. And if you need anything, don't hesitate to go to Itachi or Kakashi, got it?" Cynthia said.

"Ok. Now stop wasting your time here and go ahead and meet up with your friends!"

They saw the two girls embrace before the older girl walked with Itachi back to her car and drove out.

The sound of the large doors being opened, and then closed as the younger girl went inside reached their ears.

" How come we never knew Itachi had close friends in Suna?" Naruto asked.

" For someone who lives in the same house as him you really don't pay attention do you?" Sasuke said. "He goes to Suna every other weekend. Nothing odd about having friends there."

"But what IS odd is that one of these friends is Saruobi's inheritor. " Sai said.

" And is she seriously living here alone?! And she's 16? Doesn't that mean she should be going to high school with us?" Naruto said. Not giving them a chance to answer, he said, "Let's go round back and see if we can spot her through the windows!"

The house had grounds that covered several acres, partially covered in forest cover, and by residual ruins of older monuments. Moving to the cover of the more forested part of land at the back of the house, the three of them looked in the direction of the house.

" Chances are this is useless and we won't see her. Stop being so nosy Naruto." Sasuke said.

" No wait give it a few more minutes. She hasn't had time to go upstairs yet." Naruto said.

"Perhaps we should simply return home - it's not like we have nothing better to do than trespass on a dead man's property." Sai said.

"Wait! Second floor, is that her through the window?" Naruto asked, trying to stand up before Sasuke pulled him down again.

"I can't see what she looks like- just long black hair. She looks pretty tall though." Naruto said.

"Stop trying to stand up." Sasuke hissed standing up to try and stop Naruto from doing the same, "You'll blow our cover."

"You're doing it now." Naruto retorted.

"She's opening her window." Sai added.

Naruto turned to look at the window as Sasuke tackled him to the ground to keep him out of sight.

Sitting up again and returning to their place behind the bushes, Sai said, "She saw you. Probably just your hair. Got startled and jumped back again. Now she's come back to see if she really did see blonde hair in the middle of green foliage. But she can't see us."

Sasuke looked up at the now open window. The girl who stood there- the first thing that struck him about her were her eyes. Aside from the fact that one was black, and one blue, they looked so...lifeless. It was a look he didn't associate in many places- but one he often found in his own reflection in the early hours of the morning.

Her dark hair shimmered in the evening sunlight leaving a dark fiery trail down to her waist. Her skin was a sharp contrast to her hair. Her face basked in the dimming light like the moon in a dark night.

"Hey Sasuke, she is kinda pretty isn't she? Wonder who she is."

She was. "Hn." But not necessarily Sasuke's preferred type. "But not my type." he quickly before Naruto could start his incessant innuendos.

"Idiot, you say that about everyone."

"Not everyone." Sai butt in. "He doesn't say that about Sakura."

"Shut up." Sasuke said, turning to Naruto, "You've seen her now. Can we leave?"

Naruto frowned, "But we don't know anything about her yet-" he paused, seeing the glares he was receiving from both Sai and Sasuke. "Okay okay lets leave."

* * *

"And then I wanted to stay and find out more about her, but these two turds dragged me away." Naruto finished, pointing an accusatory thumb in the direction of Sasuke and Sai, as he recounted the previous afternoon's events to the others the following morning before school.

Kakashi, their homeroom teacher, was late to come, as always.

"If she's sixteen shouldn't she be joining our class? Or at least our year group. There's only one good school in Konoha- she's bound to come here." Tenten said.

"And if she was in Suna she might have known Temari, Kankuro and Gaara." Ino added.

"What did Itachi say? Did you ask him anything?" Neji asked, thankful that he had been excluded from the previous days' trespassing excursion.

"No we asked him tonnes of times but he just kept on telling us we'd find out eventually." Naruto said. "We didn't even get a name."

The conversation eventually moved away to different topics as more of their friends arrived.

A full twenty minutes later, Mr Hatake- or Kakashi as they called him- walked in, complete with his usual gravity defying bleached hair and eye patch and muffler over his face.

At first, the class chattered on completely ignoring his arrival, until he threw an angered book at Naruto's head to draw the class' attention to himself.

"Be quiet!" he shouted, clearing his throat, annoyance in his eyes. "I swear- a class full of teenagers and they all act like three year olds!"

"At least three year olds don't show up hours late!" Naruto called back, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the book had struck him.

"I have a reasonably authentic reason for being late this time" Kakashi interrupted.

"'Getting lost on the path of life' is 'reasonably authentic'?" Ino asked skeptically.

"Why shouldn't it be?" he asked.

Naruto threw the book back at him, barely missing his head.

"But today I was late because I had to fetch the new transfer student. She's fresh in from Suna so be nice to her, okay? Don't infect her with your stupidity." Kakashi said, opening the classroom door to let in the same dark haired girl from the previous evening.

"Class...meet Arisa Tsutsugami."


	3. Chapter 2

_**Four days ago**_

"Class... Meet Arisa Tsutsugami."

Tenten watched the feline slender, voluptuous yet toned figure enter the room. She came to a stop standing next to Kakashi, her pale skin illuminated by the dim light streaming through the rain splattered windows in sharp contrast to her obsidian black hair and the thin black cardigan and slim fitting black trousers she wore. Her skin colour could have been considered unhealthy on most people, but for her, it looked natural. Her eyes were dichromatic - one a rich blend of teal blue with golden flecks surrounding her iris, and the other a deep, dark abyss of ebony. High cheek bones and perfectly sculpted aristocratic features finished her near six foot graceful appearance.

Tenten, looking at her for the first time, could not deny that she was incredibly beautiful- a trait of most of the girls in Tenten's life. The new girl's eyes surveyed everything with an observant gaze, a thousand thoughts whirring behind their deceitful calm. Her first impression would have been an 'ice cold beauty queen', but something told her that she wasn't quite that vain. Was she nervous meeting her new class? Tenten hoped so. It would make her seem that much more human, and less like the the godly sculptures that she looked like. The same type of being crafted by the gods that many of Tenten's friends could be portrayed as.

" Arisa, why don't you tell us about yourself?". Kakashi asked.

"I'd rather not." she said, expressing hints of exasperation as she looked at Kakashi with an expression of... Familiarity, was it? If that were the case, did she know their teacher from some previous acquaintance ?

Kakashi frowned with mock injury at her refusal and said, "Now, now, you don't want to anger your dear teacher Mr Hatake, do you?"

It became quite apparent that the two were previously acquainted when her the vacant expression of her eyes receded to be replaced by a small glint of annoyance and affection, at his comically condescending words.

"I don't doubt for a second the people here call you nothing more than 'Kakashi' in terms of respect." she said dryly, eliciting a few laughs from the classroom. Seeing his persistence, she relented, saying, "The name's Arisa. Moved from Suna where I used to stay with my aunt. As for likes and dislikes...lets just say that there's nothing black or white, just shades of grey. Is that all?" She asked, looking at the white haired man with a ridiculous muffler covering the majority of his face.

Sighing as he realised that he wouldn't get any more out of her, he said, "Why don't you sit in the empty seat in the third row next to Tenten and get to know your classmates. I'll let you mingle for the first hour. Class dismissed."

With a pat on her shoulder in the direction of the empty seat to Tenten's right, he stalked out of class.

Tenten watched the Arisa slip into the seat next to her, and turned in her seat to face the new arrival.

"Hi there! I'm Tenten!" she said cheerfully as she greeted the new arrival.

Despite the slightly intimidating air to the girl, Tenten took a liking to her as she watched her smile politely and say, "Hello.", extending a hand in greeting.

Tenten took the cold fingers in her own, shaking them in a firm grip.

A handshake is one's first physical impression of a person. You can tell alot about a person from their hand. Shaking Arisa's hand, Tenten's first reaction was to be intimidated by the dark haired girl- almost as intimidated as with Sasuke or Neji. But at the same time, there was something comfortingly familiar about the girl that made Tenten think she would fit right in with the rest of her friends. Where some of her friends masked their sadness with cheerful airs, or had filled the gaping holes inside with each other, it seemed Arisa was a mystery who had covered her said hole by detaching herself from those around her; afraid to grow to care for many.

What else did that deceitfully disarming smile hide?

Tenten would find out. After all, there was a reason why she was the best reader of a person's character in their group.

Sitting in front of them, Ino turned back to look at them. Naruto walked over to plop down on Tenten's table, and Sasuke and Neji leaned in closer from behind.

" Hey! I'm Naruto! You're Arisa, huh? The one who moved into Grandpa Hiruzen's old house?" Naruto asked , hyperactive as always.

"Grandpa ? Who's he to you?" she asked, brows furrowed in confusion as she extended a hand of greeting.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi. That's who. The real question, Arisa," Ino said with the calm yet threatening air of interrogation she had inherited from her father, a smirk curling her lips as she leaned towards the dark haired girl, " is who is he to YOU? By the way, I'm Ino." the ridiculously pretty blonde said.

"Grandfather. He was my grandfather." Arisa said, continuing in the same rapid calm that Ino had started.

" How come you were never at the funeral?"

"I was. Briefly."

"Maybe you weren't looking in the right places."

"We never saw you before either. Suna isn't that far. Why no visits to granddaddy dearest?"

"What's the need when 'granddaddy dearest' wants to come to us? Either way my visits were never scarce."

"But we never saw you."

"I never wanted to be seen."

Their rapid exchange stopped there, as Ino broke into a grin. "Feisty! Me like! Now that's what I'm talkin' about! This over here is Sasuke," she pointed to said dark haired boy, "And that's Neji." she pointed to the long haired Hyuga.

Both boys nodded at the mention of their names.

"Well how do you know Kakashi?" Naruto asked.

"And Itachi." Tenten added.

"How do you know I know Itachi?" Arisa said, immediately on guard with her information. 'For what reason?' Tenten wondered.

"We saw you with him when we watched you move into the mansion yesterday!" Naruto said before Sasuke could stop him from saying something stupid.

"You... 'watched' me moving in yesterday? You were spying on the place?" Arisa asked suspiciously.

" What he means is that he was curious to see who was moving in and stopped by to have a quick look." Sasuke said, salvaging the quickly escalating situation.

"All unwarranted evidence found by unlawful means is nullified by law. I guess this means I don't have to answer your question, right?" Arisa said, sidestepping the question.

"B-but-" Naruto protested.

"Naruto she's not here for an interrogation you can stop asking so many questions." Neji interrupted.

" Umm... Sorry." he said, smiling sheepishly.

The door to the classroom opened just then and the familiar cherry blossom hair and viridian almond shaped eyes characteristic of the beauty that is Sakura Haruno walked inside, a sheaf of papers in hand. She was listening intently to something the Hinata was saying. Hinata, Tenten noticed, was soaking wet, her dark raven hair hanging limply by her waste, and her clothes clinging to each of her delicate feminine curves. Her porcelain skin glistened delectably from the water.

Seriously, being surrounded by so many beautiful women often made Tenten self conscious. That is, until they reminded her of her own beauty... But that was off topic.

Hinata and Sakura walked up to join their group, Sakura dropping the papers onto her table and Hinata collapsing in a shivering flurry at her seat.

"Who knew it would be so _wet_ outside!" Sakura said, pulling a towel out of Tenten's gym bag and passing it to Hinata to dry off.

She stopped halfway, noticing Arisa, and Hinata froze with her hand on the towel, looking at the dark haired newcomer.

"Sakura, Hinata, this is Arisa. She's Hiruzen's granddaughter. A new transfer to our class today. Arisa, these are our close friends Sakura and Hinata." Tenten said after the initial surprised pause.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Arisa said.

" Same goes for us." Hinata said, shivering slightly from the cool air on her wet clothes.

"So do you plan to stay in Konoha for long, Arisa?" Sakura asked as Hinata finally took the towel and dried her hair.

"Probably."

" Is this your first time living in Konoha?" Tenten asked.

" Not exactly. But I don't know my way around here."

"Great! Then we'll show you around after school with the rest of the gang!" Naruto said, grinning.

Raising a questioning eyebrow at his words as she looked at the group, she was surprised to here Sasuke answer, a small smirk on his face, "Seems like you're part of the crew now."

* * *

"How's school treating you?" Itachi asked tentatively, trying to get the younger girl to open up to him as they walked to the staff room.

The first fifteen minute recess of the day and he had called Arisa aside to check on her. He was quite worried that her antisocial disposition would find her not so many friends- though he should have trusted his brother's motley crew to pick her up without much objection.

"School's fine. I'm fine." she said curtly, uncomfortable with talking about herself, with an air of finality which said she didn't wish to disclose more than that.

Of course who was he to pay heed to her wishes? "Settling in okay at the mansion?" he asked, trying to make sense of her mental condition.

"The house's fine. A little empty but it's okay." she said. 'Empty'. Meaning she _was_ missing company. Again, it seemed like she didn't wish to talk any further on the topic and instead changed the topic by asking, "Where does 'teaching hormonal teenagers' fit into the training requirements for federal bureau elites? Weren't you and Kakashi aiming for the elite service?"

"It's a small quota we need to fill, given our,... _explosive_ track record." he said, realizing her subtle attempt at diverting his attention. But word games were always interesting when he had an intelligent opponent. "How do you find your new classmates?"

"Not bad. What did you do after you left the mansion yesterday?"

"Drinks at a bar. Anyone catch your interest in particular in the new class?"

"That's irrelevant. Are you planning on asking my cousin out any time soon?"

"I'm an Uchiha. Uchiha's do not stoop as low as to 'ask someone out'. What are your plans for this evening?"

"Rich words coming from an old time gangster. Nothing really. Your brother's friends offered to take me around town in the afternoon."

He smirked at their rapid conversation. Despite her being adept at dodging questions, he still found out all he needed to know. She seemed okay- for now. He would keep an eye on her to make sure it stayed that way. Cynthia would skin him alive if not.

"Does Sasuke know that you know him from before?"

"I didn't think it a necessary detail. I only know about him from you so it's not personal."

"But he doesn't know you? Not even vague memories from when you used to be in Konoha thirteen years ago?"

"I don't think any of them do. But that year was a particularly challenging one for all of us, from what you've told me, so I don't hold it against them."

"Only the girl with an eidetic memory would remember that much in detail. Mother is delighted to hear you're back in Konoha, furious that you haven't kept in contact with her, and adamant about having you over for dinner tonight. Would you care to join us?"

"I don't see the harm. Are you going up to Suna to meet Cynthia any time soon?"

"Probably for the festival she's so busy organizing security for. They're on high terror alert."

"So naturally, you'll be in the center of the commotion." she said dryly.

"You better get back to class now. Come to me if you have any problems." he said, laughing a little at her words.

Normally this would be where any normal people as closely acquainted as they were would have embraced. But he, being Itachi, wasn't about to stoop to that.

"It was nice seeing you." she said, waving goodbye as she walked away from the staff room, back in the direction she came.

Itachi smirked at the amusing nature of their conversation, before face palming in the annoyance that was Kakashi Hatake who awaited him on the other side of the staff room.

* * *

Arisa had disappeared sometime in the free hour before lunch. Sakura only briefly wondered as to where the dark haired enigma could have disappeared to before deciding to leave it to Naruto and Ino to find. If the blondes wanted to find something, it would be found. It was better not to get in their way for fear of being caught in a stampede.

So far, she wasn't hostile towards the new transfer. She actually quite liked Arisa, and her calm reserved attitude was much more easy to handle the boisterous overwhelming yellow hurricane that was Naruto Uzumaki. But she was wary of the way Arisa seemed a little _too_ apathetic towards most things- the girl being unwilling to trust blindly was also something which intrigued Sakura. She was sure, if they opened up to each other, they could become good friends.

That being said, it was hypocritical of Sakura to talk about opening up properly and trusting people when she was so tight fisted with her trust in the first place. Naruto, Sasuke and their friends were some of the limited people she genuinely trusted.

Sitting in the library and catching up on some work Tsunade had assigned to her (the old headmistress tried to shirk her duties in all ways possible- even by passing it on to the students), Sakura looked around to observe the rest of the people in the library. There were no familiar faces. In fact, the library was empty where she sat, next to the window.

The slight pitter patter of the rain reached her ears. The gloomy weather hadn't let up. At all.

A flurry of movement caught her attention in the corner of her eye.

Turning to look at the source, she spotted a strange boy standing, partially concealed, by the bookshelf. His back to her, she felt something odd. For starters, she knew almost everyone in the school- and nobody had hair like _that_. From behind, it looked like a mass of slicked back black and red feathers standing up on edge. There was only one new transfer student that day, and that was Arisa. So who was this strange person in the library?

Standing up, she started walking towards the bookshelf when the boy turned around.

What she saw caused her heart to lurch as she let out a small scream and stumbled back, tripping on something and landing on her back on the maroon carpeted floor of the library.

In place of the boy's face was a grotesquely curved large beak, hooked at a razor sharp point, and beady black predatory eyes. His head was a mass of feathers and his hands were sharp hooked talons.

Her voice shaky, she tried demanding an identity from the bird like creature, but no words found her.

Instead she kept her eyes warily trained on the figure as he walked closer to her.

Her limbs numbed in dread as she looked at the creature with fear and disbelief.

It couldn't be real, could it?

She blinked.

In the split second it took to open and closed her eyes, the creature vanished.

As though it had never been there.

And it only served to deepen her confusion.

What on earth had just happened.

She blinked again once or twice and looked again.

Nothing.

Had she imagined the whole thing? She didn't think her imagination capable of coming up with something so...abominable. But had it been real? How was that even possible?

In the end, she sighed saying, "I've been wired up on caffeine for too many nights. Sasuke is right, I should cut down on the coffee. It was probably just a figment of my imagination."

Just then she heard footsteps approach and felt her body tense.

Had it come back?

Was it not an overactive imagination after all?

She turned around.

Long blonde hair and blue eyes greeted her as Ino stood over her saying, "Forehead! What are you doing wasting time on the floor? It's almost lunch. Choji's cooking today- you don't wanna miss it. Geez- of all the places to find you, the library floor? What, can I expect some secret boyfriend to be lurking in the shadows too?" she said sarcastically as she helped the pink haired girl to her feet.

Sakura tried not to let the relief on her face be too obvious as she accepted the blonde's help and stood up.

"Seriously though, what were you doing on the floor?" Ino asked as an afterthought once they were walking through the corridors.

"Umm..I tripped." Sakura said. Technically speaking, it was only half a lie.

"Geez... What a klutz. Come on, Naruto's just about found Arisa, so we'll introduce her to the rest now.. We don't wanna be late."

* * *

Kiba watched as a grey tabby cat jumped off the open windowsill, landing with a small hiss in the wet grass before plodding over lazily to a sheltered pocket, smuggling into a comfortable position with the air of royalty coming into their birthright.

A dark haired girl's face became visible looking out of the window with a concerned expression in search of the cat, before quickly disappearing once again.

Kiba always preferred dogs to cats, but since his family owned a vet clinic, he had his experience with a fair share of the feline side of the coin too.

As he watched the hot girl from before come out of the building and find the cat, he remembered what Naruto had said about a new student who he'd be introduced to on the lunch break. Was this her?

"Well aren't you a lazy cat? Where's your owner?" the girl asked, picking the cat up and scratching it between the ears, careful to keep the cat dry and out of the rain. The cat purred in contentment.

"It's probably a stray. They like to make themselves known around here, what with the school being on forest boundary and all." Kiba said, making an appearance.

"I'm Kiba. Are you the new girl Naruto was talking about?" he asked, stretching out a hand in greeting.

The girl didn't seem too surprised to see him which made him wonder if she had noticed him before when she looked out of the window. Instead she nodded saying, "I'm Arisa. I take it you're part of the group the others mentioned?"

Keeping one hand secured beneath the cat, she used the other hand to shake his.

"Yes I am. It's nice to meet you."

The cat mewled loudly in agreement.

"Seems like someone's taken a liking to you. You gonna keep him?" Kiba asked her, as she stroked the cat.

She looked down at the tabby, deliberating the idea inside."Yes. I think I will. He doesn't have a collar so he shouldn't be someone's pet, right? All I need to do is make sure he has his shots."

"And I happen to know a vet clinic that can help you out with that with a special newcomer's discount considering it was the owner's son who recommended the place to you." he said jokingly.

"There you are!"

The sound of Naruto's loud shout had them both snapping in that direction. Naruto, dragging a rather red Hinata by the hand, came up to them and said, "I see you've already met Kiba. Kiba! This is the new girl I was talking about, Arisa."

"So I've heard." Kiba said dryly.

Naruto turned to Arisa ignoring Kiba's sarcasm and said, "Come on its almost lunch let me introduce you to the rest of our friends!"

* * *

On the wet roof, Shikamaru lay lazily against the floor, rain falling on his face as he looked up at the skies. He hadn't planned on getting soaked while cloud watching. It just... Happened.

But either way, nobody would have thought to look for him in the rain so he was able to get some much needed peace. At least until Naruto or Kiba or some idiot came along to drag him out of there for something troublesome. Or the annoying she devil Ino would come to try and make him work. Or do something. Like meeting the new transfer student. She would likely be another annoying girl like Temari. Or at the very least, Temari would know her from somewhere. He sighed. Why were things so troublesome?

Looking upwards, a sudden change in the clouds caught his eye.

Brows furrowed, he moved the arm that was resting on his forehead to the side and propped himself up, looking in the same direction again.

Nothing was there.

But he was sure-

There it was again.

What was that thing? A bird? It was moving too fast to see.

But moving erratically. Most birds this time of year would be doing anything but in the current weather.

A cool chilly wind picked up, slapping the rain harshly in his face.

But his attention was fixed on the fast moving thing hidden in the clouds.

It was moving towards him.

His eyes widened in surprise as he caught a glimpse of razor sharp teeth and black leathery wings less than three feet above him, and he scrambled back in apprehension, jumping to his feet.

What was going on?

Logically, he must be hallucinating.

But his instinct told him otherwise. It screamed at him to run.

The wind whipped his hair into his face as he edged towards the door, eyes steadily trained on the flying menace in the sky.

It was circling him.

But still too fast to identify.

One thing for sure was that it was far too large, and humanoid, to be any known animal.

It came to a stop in front of him, face inches from his.

The only thing he could see was the face. Not even the face, the eyes.

Blood red eyes glistening with intelligence which held him captured in fear as his mind raced to figure out how to escape from the situation.

And then, as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared.

Shikamaru stared in absolute confusion at the empty air in front of him, then looked to the sky to see if it had taken flight.

All that stared back at him were his beloved clouds, pelleting him with rain that by now had soaked him to the marrow and then some.

He sighed.

"What the actual-"

"Shikamaru! There you are! What are you doing out here in the rain! Come inside the rest of the guys are gonna introduce us to the new girl now! And its lunch - don't make me miss my lunch! Hey, Shikamaru? You okay? What happened?"

Shikamaru looked pensively at the bronze haired Akimichi who had come up to find him.

"Nothing's wrong. But man, this is such a drag... " he drawled as they left the roof.

It must have been his mind playing tricks on him, right?


	4. Chapter 3

Arisa looked at the completely assembled gang in front of her.

Tenten, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Neji, Hinata, Kiba, Lee, Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino. And Sai, who apparently was sick for the time being but lived with Sasuke and Naruto with Sasuke's mother Mikoto. Their names so new to her...they held so much promise.

And despite having never known them personally before, being with them felt...right. Cheesy much? But yes, complete. As though she was supposed to be there all along.

But these friends...they knew each other inside out. Every quirk, every habit, every inside joke, every personality.

When they suffered losses, they had each other to fill the holes. Would she be able to trust them?

Trust wasn't too hard. Even if she hadn't told them anything yet, there was something so completely disarming about some of them that made her sure they could coax her into trusting them.

But would they still trust her after she told them? Would they accept her? That was perhaps the biggest fear which kept her guard up.

Would she ever share that level of friendship with them? To know each other by small gestures and unspoken words? Would they trust her enough to do that?

And even if they became her new friends, would she be able to keep them?

A thousand doubts clouded her mind as she looked at the people who already held a place in her heart so soon after meeting them. Arisa didn't wear her heart on her sleeve, but when she formed bonds with people, she could be fiercely protective. If she lost these people...

Would she ever be able to build herself together again?

"Hey Arisa! What are you going to name that cat? It's so lazy it looks like it could be Shikamaru's soulmate!" Naruto said, cheerfully bouncing over as they laughed.

Jolted from her thoughts, Arisa looked around at the new faces she had met today as they argued over a new name for the cat.

If it came to that, she'd just have to make sure she'd never lose them.

"I think Sakura's right. Vladimir sounds...princely."

There was going to be a hell of a lot more going on in Konoha now that the circle was complete...

* * *

She peered closer at the object wrapped in black velvet, placed in her hand.

Her fingers felt the cool rough texture of rusted metal brush against the pads of her fingers. The contact was electrifying as it sent ominous shivers down her spine.

Her fingers found the jagged end of- a key, was it? - and followed its bow, her fingers feeling vine like engravings circling around the stem of the key. Rusted petals and leaves curled daintily at the base of the head, where her fingers felt the cool impression of a five pointed star, the pentagram. A small hole at the tip of the scar threaded a cool metallic chain. It was a key. A key threaded on a necklace.

Looking at the key in her hands, Arisa felt a strange sense of foreboding.

"Why are you handing this to me of all people? Why now?" she asked.

"It used to belong to your mother. She would have wanted you to have it." Mikoto said warmly. "I wanted to give it to you before the boys come down. Didn't think you'd want them to be around for that. I know you likely haven't told them about your parents yet."

Mikoto was always so perceptive. Even when it had been almost two years since they had last met.

"I think it's really amazing what you did- taking care of not just your two sons but two more on top of that after the massacre..." Arisa said, making light conversation as they waited for the boys to arrive.

"I would have taken you in two without a second thought." Mikoto said warmly. "You can come to me with anything you need. Anytime." 'You've been through far too much alone...'

"Thank you, Aunt Mikoto." Arisa said. Age had been kind to Mikoto. She had a regal beauty to her which had not faded even with age. Even the loss of her husband, Fugaku, had not changed that.

* * *

He was walking in the garden behind the house, looking for the sketchpad he had left there the previous day.

She was standing near the far wall of the garden boundary, where the white ivy hung low over the walls.

The same ivy that he had been drawing the previous day.

Mikoto's garden was tenderly and lovingly put together with the utmost time and care. It was better than many professional gardens. Rows of rose bushes lined its pebbled walk ways, and to describe the gardens, 'breathtaking' was too weak a word. It gave Sai great inspiration to draw when in the gardens.

But the pebbled pathways made it near impossible to make a silent approach.

She must have heard him as he approached, but she did not turn around to see him, and instead moved closer to the hanging vines, her hands cupping a small white ivy flower.

Finding his sketchbook and stationary lying neatly arranged on the ground, he realised she had looked through his drawings.

"You draw...really well." she said softly, still looking at the ivy.

"I take it you like flowers?" he said.

"Somewhat yes." she said, her back still turned to him.

"Do you know what flower that is?" he asked, stepping closer.

"Ivy." she said.

"So you take pleasure in surrounding yourself with flowers which could likely be poisonous?"he asked bluntly.

"Pleasure is ...relative. Death is also relative. If you are talking of fear, then I do not fear death. At least not my own death." she said, finally turning to him with a flower in her hand. "Do you?" she asked.

"Fear is relative too in that sense, don't you think?" he said.

"Seeing the sketchbook in his hands, she said, "You associate each of your friends with a flower."

"Ino gave me that idea." he said.

"You associate Ino with a rose?" she asked.

"From what I gathered from reading, a rose best represents her passion and wish to live in each moment as opposed to the past and future. And also her vibrant artistic clothing designs." he said.

"You read all of that...from a book?" she asked, eyebrows raised, impressed.

"Yes, books." he said.

Intrigued, she asked, "And what flower...would you associate with me?"

He looked at her, pensive, before saying, "Calla Lilies."

"Calla lilies?" she asked.

"Black ones. They symbolise mystery and grace. Sounds fitting of you for now, don't you-" his eyes widened as he looked up at the wall and he stopped in his tracks, stumbling back.

A pair of murky yellow eyes stared back at him from the wall, where a humanoid furry mass and razor sharp canine teeth.

Arisa, seeing his actions, flipped around and looked in the direction he was looking.

He turned from looking at her to the wall again.

But there was nothing there.

'What the hell was that?' he thought to himself.

"Sai? Are you okay? What happened?" she asked tentatively.

Looking from her to the wall once or twice, and seeing no return of the strange creature, he shook his head.

Had he been imagining things? How uncharacteristic of him. His instinct told him it was no imagination on his part, but his logic told him otherwise.

"Sai?" she asked again.

Dismissing it at long last, he said, "I'm okay. Just thought I saw something."

She looked back to the wall, and said, "There's nothing there now."

He nodded, saying, "I apologise for that. You must have been startled."

"It's okay. Though I must return home now. It was nice talking to you, Sai." she said, before waving and leaving the garden.

Throwing a final suspicious look at the wall, he walked back to the house with his stationary.

He never saw the yellow eyes which followed him as he left.

* * *

Cornering Itachi in his room a roughly an hour after Arisa left, Naruto said, "All right, what's the deal?!"

Itachi looked tired. "What are you talking about?"

"He means what's up with Arisa." Sai clarified.

" What makes you think I'd tell you anything you don't already know?" he asked.

"Because you know her from before. We saw you yesterday at Sarutobi's mansion." Naruto replied.

" You were spying?" Itachi asked, his voice threatening.

" It doesn't exactly matter. She already knows." Sasuke said.

" How come mom was so nice to her? Not that she's not nice, but around Arisa, she wasn't just friendly, she was treating Arisa as though she was a delicate glass doll that could break at any minute. How come mom even knows her? How do you know her?" Naruto said.

"Arisa's mother was a friend of our mother. What's odd about that?" Itachi said.

"You're dodging the question. How do you know Arisa?" Sai questioned.

"I know her cousin Cynthia. She used to go to school in Konoha until 15 years ago, when her dad got a transfer to Suna. She's a good friend of Kakashi and I."

" Are you even capable of having friends?" Sasuke scoffed.

Itachi glared at him.

" But that doesn't explain Arisa. What's up with her?" Naruto asked again.

Itachi's face darkened. Sighing he said, "That girl has a past stained with blood. Suffice to say, leave it be. Don't go digging too deep. And I'll have you know I consider her as much of a sister as I do you brothers, so don't do anything to make her unwelcomed."

"Unwelcomed? Why would we do that? We like her, we just want to know so we can understand her better! " Naruto said.

"Trust is something you need to earn from her. And she from you. It's her story to tell and she will likely never tell it. So I advise you still snooping around." he said, before glaring at them angrily and saying, "I refuse to speak on this matter any further. Now," he walked to the door of his room opening it and motioning for them to go out, " Please leave."

* * *

"Hey Shikamaru, can't you hack your dad's police files to check Arisa's record?" Naruto asked the lazy Nara over the phone.

" This is not going to work. We're not in some silly spy movie where we can pull stunts like that." Sai said in the background.

"I dunno, it's too much work for me." Shikamaru said, Naruto's phone set on loudspeaker.

"It's worth a try if we really want to know about her. But we could just ask Itachi when he's in a better mood." Sasuke said.

"Is Itachi ever in a better mood?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"Why don't we just ask her?" Neji suggested, his number being dialed in to complete the group call.

Everybody groaned at him like it was the lamest idea ever. Though it was actually the only one that was sensible.

5 minutes later they were listening to the sounds of Shikamaru typing away on his laptop, accessing the necessary files.

The sounds of a lazy, annoyed groan followed by a resigned sigh followed.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked.

"This isn't going to work." Shikamaru said, a hint of confusion in his voice. " It doesn't make sense."

"Why not? Can you not hack it?" Sai asked.

"I've accessed the files. But there's nothing to back."

"What do you mean? Nothing to hack?" Sasuke asked.

"It's like she doesn't exist. Arisa Tsutsugami. Invalid input."

"Did you get the spelling wrong or something?" Naruto asked.

"No. I've checked both Suna and Konoha files. It's like her files have all been erased."

Neji said, "Check her cousin's files. Maybe that would give us something."

"Too troublesome."

"C'mon Shikamaru, pleeeaseee?" Naruto said.

"Fine then, what a drag... According to this, her sister is an agent of the bureau of intelligence. She's working with a designated team which is based in Suna." Shikamaru said shortly afterward.

"What about criminal records?" Naruto said.

"She's a federal agent, what kind of 'criminal records' are you expecting?" said Sasuke.

"Actually," Shikamaru interrupted, "There are two noteworthy criminal records which we could have a look at." He said.

"According to the first one, the subject's cousin was caught in the crossfire of some drug trafficking circles. The subject, although not on the task force sent to track the drug traffickers, infiltrated their compound and exposed the drug traffickers, effectively saving her cousin. She was put on probation for a week as a result. "

" Did she have help ?" Asked Naruto.

With a sigh, Shikamaru said "The Akatsuki gang with the addition of Kakashi Hatake."

Sasuke laughed a little and said, "Typical."

"Wow..." was Naruto's only response.

" What's the other file?" Neji asked.

"The subject's cousin was attacked and the subject killed the attacker before her cousin could do the same. She was not charged and the court ruled it as an act of self defence- but she was reprimanded for letting a kid- her cousin- play with deadly knives- and no they weren't kitchen knives."

"Both times... The cousin is Arisa?" Naruto asked.

" Obviously." Sai said.

"Well this doesn't explain much- except for the fact that our new classmate has had a series of close shaves with the authorities. And knows the Akatsuki." Sasuke said.

" Nobody tell Arisa that we hacked her files or found out about this." Neji warned.

"Can you hack the personal files? Family?" Naruto asked.

" Actually... I have a game of shogi to catch up with my dad over. So bye." he hung up.

"... Yeah, we can continue this over text if you're really that obsessed, Naruto." Neji said, before hanging up himself, leaving Naruto alone in the room as Sasuke and Sai very conveniently disappeared off to separate bathrooms at that exact moment.

" Oh great! Thanks soo much for leaving me in here all alone guys! " he called after them sarcastically.

The sound of something falling behind him whipped him around as he looked at the bedside stand. A book lay fallen on the floor next to it.

" Uh...guys? Was that you?" he asked.

No reply.

" Okay joke's over guys you can come out now." he said, laughing slightly in the dark.

Another rustling sound with no reply made him wish he hadn't turned the lights off to make Mikoto think that they were asleep.

A large face pounced on him as he fell down, startled.

In less than a split second, a large, dark Teddy bear with razor sharp teeth and malevolent eyes appeared before him, it's skin peeled away to reveal a gruesome mass of thick cables, knives and blades, and large eyeballs beneath the skin, and then it receded again to leave a startled, shouting Naruto on the floor in surprise, his heart jumping at the sudden fear.

A Teddy bear? May not seem so scary. But it was truly terrifying.

The sound of the door being thrust open and lights being flipped on had Naruto swirling around to see a half naked Sasuke, and a Sai clad in nothing but a towel, as they both strode in and asked, " What the hell, Naruto?! What happened?"

"I saw...I saw..." Naruto said, panting heavily as he struggled words to describe what he saw. What was he supposed to say? 'I saw a Teddy bear'? Not exactly bone chillingly frightening. And definitely illogical.

Had he even seen anything? Was it just his imagination?

Either way he wasn't going to describe what he saw now. It was crazy. They'd ship him to an asylum.

"You saw what?" Itachi asked, standing impatiently in the doorway.

" Uh- it was nothing. Just my imagination. I'm sorry." he said sheepishly.

Sasuke groaned in annoyance, Sai gave him a funny look, while Itachi sighed and said, "Go to sleep. The three of you." before walking out of the room.


	5. Nightmare 2

_**"What you are dealing with is far beyond the lives of simply fifteen teenagers. It is even beyond fifteen races, far more diverse, larger than many times the human race. It is a matter of life or death. The key lies with you."**_

* * *

 _She stood in a bedroom, by the looks of it. A large, round bed with gilded posts and an overhead canopy took up one side of the room. Large windows adorned with deep navy drapery covered the opposing wall. The room was lavishly decorated, but not in a manner common to her time. It looked out of place. Something that belonged aeons into the past._

 _She became aware of three other presences in the room- the three talking as though she did not exist._

 _One with white hair, standing by the window looking outside pensively into the night sky, spoke, his voice gravelly and pained. "He has risen. I must vanquish him once and for all this time."_

 _The second, a male with long black hair countered him. "But what would become of you?"_

 _" Spirited away to seal a far greater threat... Doesn't seem like a bad way to go does it?"_

 _" In your absence the others will run amuck. Without you to reign over their curses, they will destroy each other." a woman with long blonde hair spoke._

 _"What do you plan to do with the curses if you are gone?" the dark haired man asked._

 _" I shall entrust them to their rightful owners. They scream to be possessed by human blood. I shall simply be returning stolen property."_

 _"But are they ready?"_

 _The old man once again adorned a faraway look in his eyes. "I believe, when the time is right, they shall indeed be ready. So long as they keep steady possession of their legacy, they shall never face any further threat. My death would be fulfilled then."_

 _"But you can't simply leave!" the woman said, her expression somewhere between sorrow and panic._

 _"I see no other way."_

 _"I agree with you." the man with black hair said after a long pause. "But first," he continued, and turned to look in her direction. No longer ignoring her as they had before, he said, "We need to eliminate some unwanted observers."_

 _As they quickly moved towards her, she stepped back hurriedly. 'Unwanted Observers' meant her, right?_

 _Her back hit the smooth glass of the windows, large drapery on both of her sides._

 _They continued moving forward, and she felt something cold move against her arm. Looking down, she jolted as a myriad of serpents started flowing from the folds of the curtains- some large, some small, wrapping around her arms, legs, neck, their venomous fangs dripping ominously._

 _Struggling to escape their grasp which held her immobile against the glass, she momentarily forgot about the three hostile people in the room...until she felt something cold and wet brush against her cheek._

 _Shivering in disgust, she nearly screamed as she saw the dark haired man's serpentile tongue snake over the side of her face._

 _"W-what do you want, you freak?!" she asked, an edge to her voice._

 _"Give it to us! You cannot evade us forever!"_

 _"Give you what? What do you want?"_

 _"You know well of what we speak. You cannot keep it hidden from us! Where is it?!" he hissed._

 _The two on either side of him started morphing into more sinister, demonic forms._

 _Her blood ran cold in fear as she struggled to escape._

 _A snake slithered along the black haired man's shoulders, resting on his arm, poised to strike._

 _"I-I honestly don't know what you're talking about! Let me go!" she shouted, panic in her voice._

 _" You think that you are protecting them by keeping hidden? You have only sealed their deaths! " he hissed._

 _" Watch as they burn in the pits of hell! We have not harmed you yet. Do not let that deceive you info thinking they are safe! "_

 _The snake pounced, shooting towards her._

 _She looked at the large serpent coming closer to her, death in its eyes._

 _" You can't corner me. I die on my own terms."_

 _With that, she pushed herself back, hitting the glass behind with a scattering force as the glass shattered around her and she went crashing, spiraling into the grounds below, taking the serpents binding her along with._

 _She felt the blood flowing to her head, and the sickening crack of the impact as her body impaled itself on the large iron gates beneath her._

 _The pain was unbearable as she screamed in torture._

 _Sitting up abruptly, a scream ripping her throat, she looked around, disoriented at the dark room around her._

 _Slowly calming her breathing, she realized that she was in her own room._

 _In Grandpa's mansion._

 _It was all a dream then?_

 _A startled meow brought her attention to the tabby cat in front of her, gently licking her fingers._

 _"It's okay. It was just a dream. It can't hurt me. Yet. "_


	6. Chapter 4

Hinata woke up in the morning to a phone call from her friend Temari.

"Hey Hinata! Why isn't anybody picking up their phones?" Temari sounded impatient and annoyed, as always.

"That's because it's half past five in the morning. Who else would be awake now?"Hinata asked, polite but exasperated at Temari's antics.

"Well...listen up. There's an awesome festival here in Suna right now, I'm sure you've heard. What do you have planned after school?"

"Nothing as far as I know."

"Great. We're coming to pick you up after school is over. Kankuro's bringing his truck."

"But-"

"No ifs or buts. You'll be back home by 10pm."

"But we have classes tomorrow!"

"I told you, we'll get you home before that."

"Umm...okay. I'll tell Naruto and the others. There's a new transfer here from Suna. Can she come along too?"

"Sure! Bring her along. Maybe we know her!"

"Umm... Maybe. But anyway, we'll see after school."

She ended the call. Temari was nice, but could be unreasonably demanding at times. Sighing, she moved to get up and take a shower.

* * *

At lunch, Hintata had told them about how Temari called her in the morning to take them to the festival.

"And she springs this on you at 5:30 am? How annoying..." Shikamaru said.

"Just because you hate her doesn't make her annoying. I think a festival sounds fun. Arisa? Do you know anything about this one?" Sakura said.

"It's quite an old festival, but it is cool. They have new stuff every year. But they're on high terror alert this year."

"You're coming, right?" Naruto asked.

"I guess. I'll stay over at Cynthia's place rather than make the drive back home."

"High terror alert? How'd you know that?" Tenten asked.

"Word spreads fast." Arisa said, before asking, "Who do you know in Suna?"

" Temari, Gaara and Kankuro Sabaku. Do you know any of them?"

A glint of... _amusement_ flickered through her eyes as she said, "We'll see."

* * *

After school, they all assembled outside the school building and watched a dusty red truck pull into the school parking lot. The passenger door knocked open and the sandy blonde that was Temari hopped out of the truck, jumping at the nearest person -incidentally Shikamaru - to pull each of them into a hug one by one.

" Ugh geez it's been so long since we've seen any of you! You've not come visited us in Suna in aaages." she said, before Naruto pulled Arisa to the front and said, "This is Arisa. The new student who transferred here from Suna. Do you two know each other?".

Temari looked at the dark haired girl with a mixture of recognition, respect, amusement, humour, and... Was that a small hint of fear in her expression?

Laughing, she said, "Who would have thought it'd be you moving to Konoha, huh? Does Kankuro know? It's nice to see you again." she said, amused.

"Wait... So you two DO know each other? You're friends?" Kiba asked, surprised.

"Friends... Not exactly." Arisa said.

"Let's say we were acquaintances who respect each other. But there's tons of time for that to change!" Temari said, finishing just in time for them to watch the driver's door shoot open as out came the black hooded figure of Kankuro, who pulled down his hood revealing a painted, grinning face as he saw Arisa.

"Arisa! You're here! And I was beginning to think you were lying low in some ditch or something!" he said enthusiastically.

"Wait Wait wait... YOU two are friends?!" Naruto asked.

"Friends? Nah we're homies!" Kankuro said with a laugh.

"Really? Homies? " Neji asked raising a quizzical eyebrow.

" Nah actually mainly it's me tagging along with her when she's out on the streets with or without her consent." Kankuro said, to which Arisa sighed and brought hand to pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

" Out on the streets? " Sasuke asked.

" Suna's a city with a thriving underground. Arisa's like a mini leader in the underground network! Didn't she tell you? With her own history and the ties she has to the Akatsuki, and there's not a single person who's heard of her who doesn't fear her. " he said, grinning.

Looking at the flabbergasted expressions on their faces, and the sight of Gaara, just now getting out of the truck, face palming, Kankuro deflated slightly, saying, "... I wasn't supposed to tell you was I?"

Naruto, momentarily speechless, recovered to say, "How much of that is true Arisa?"

She nodded.

"That's so cool!" he said, grinning wildly.

She blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

The others nodded in agreement, as Naruto said again, "Soo cool! If this is what we thought you were hiding from the beginning then all I can say is... Wow!" he said. "Let's get this party started!" he moved towards the truck.

Nobody noticed Arisa's small sigh of relief. If anyone had known her thoughts at that time, they would have been thankful that Kankuro had only said so much. She wasn't entirely sure of how much he knew. But the stuff in the Suna underground was mainly as a favour for Cynthia to help her contact the Akatsuki for quick operations in the Federal bureau. It wasn't even part of the reason why she was unwilling to share parts of her past with people. At least in the underground, she had never killed anyone- willingly or unwillingly.

Sakura found the new knowledge of Arisa's history only slightly surprising. She knew from the moment it was mentioned though, that it was most definitely not the reason why she was so reluctant to tell anyone much about herself. She told the same to the others before Arisa got on the truck.

Naruto turned to Gaara. "What do you know about her Gaara?"

Gaara, being Gaara, knew a lot. A lot of information that he shouldn't even have access to. But he, being Gaara, knew it anyway. All he said, in his low baritone, was, "Five years ago in Suna's middle school, an entire class of thirty nine students was killed. There was only one survivor, a child of eleven, and she was the prime suspect for the crime for almost two months, the reason being mental instability."

"So? How's it relevant?" Kiba asked.

"Later a team of federal agents found the real culprit and the child was no longer under any form of suspicion. "

" I'm still not getting the point." Lee said.

"The child's name was Arisa. That's the only other place I've heard her name before."

* * *

Just as they were about to leave, they were approached by two teachers, namely Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha.

"Where are you kids off to?" Kakashi asked.

"Umm...Suna's festival?" Naruto said with his characteristic goofy smile on his face.

"And when did you plan on coming home? Did you even bother to tell our parents?" Itachi asked.

"Umm...10pm." Naruto said as if he had nothing left to hide. "We did tell them that we were going somewhere in the afternoon."

Itachi sighed with exasperation, while Kakashi said, "The road to Suna is dangerous at night. It would be reckless to travel without a responsible adult." What Kakashi didn't mention was that they were planning on making the same trip to Suna to meet up with Cynthia and go to the festival themselves.

"Don't be such a killjoy." said Sasuke.

"As if you weren't planning on going there yourself. Cynthia told me that you guys would be going to the festival 'cause she's on duty there." Arisa said.

"So basically, you were just planning to justify going to the festival by 'chaperoning us' because you don't have a ride of your own. If I remember correctly, Itachi's car is in the garage now, getting repaired, and Kakashi's is in the scrap yard due to the miniature explosion last week. " Sai said, bluntly.

"You're just trying to hitch a ride." Sakura concluded.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head saying, "Well, as responsible adults, I think it adequate that we tag along."

Kankuro opened the door of the truck, turning to Kakashi to say, "Get your own ride."

The rest of them got in the vehicle. Kankuro turned to them once again, raising an eyebrow and saying, "Unless..." he grinned evilly, "You want to sit on top."

In the end, Itachi had been the only one to strongly oppose, and on his demand they let him sit inside, while Kakashi stayed on top.

* * *

They had been at the festival for about two hours, and the sun was beginning to set. It was fun, with the masks and the dances and the food, but Arisa's favorite had been watching Ino and Tenten repeatedly try and fail to set Sakura and Sasuke up together. As mentioned before, she wasn't one for comedy, but what Ino and Tenten didn't seem to realize was that something was going to happen even if they didn't interfere- all it took was a little more participation on Sasuke's part and Sakura being a little more forthright.

"Whose turn is it to get drinks?" Naruto asked, panting.

"I think it was Shikamaru's." Temari said, purposely annoying him. Their dislike for each other was mutual.

"What a drag...Choji , go do it instead." Shikamaru said.

"What? But I did it last time." was Choji's protestation.

Lee, watching the exchange as if it were some sort of challenge, said, "If I am unable to not do it now, I will not do it five times in the next hour."

Tenten face palmed and Arisa said, "I'll go."

Hinata said, "Me too." they got up and left.

On their way back, they took a shortcut through the forest coverage to get back quicker. The thin veil of mist which had settled in when the sun had set thickened, and after a short while, the sky was invisible due to the thick foliage overhead. The temperature dropped and Hinata shivered.

"Maybe it would have been better not to take this shortcut." Hinata asked, breaking the eerie silence.

"I guess so. Do you suppose we're lost?" Arisa asked.

"No. Not yet at least. But if we don't show up, they're sure to come looking for us, right?"

Arisa took out her cell phone and used its torchlight to inspect the path ahead of them, coming to a fork in the road, she said, "I think I see the festival lights at the end of this one. Let's go."

After a while, they reached a clearing thick with fog. "I don't think it's ever been this foggy in Suna." Arisa grumbled.

"Must be some freak weather. We can't get a connection on our mobiles eithe-" She froze, looking at Arisa eyes widened in fear.

"What's wrong?"

A large skeletal hand reached out from the earth with a faint sickly purple glow, wrapping around Hinata's ankle as she screamed. A second hand grabbed her knee, pulling her down as she fell backwards into more hands which started grabbing her and pulling her closer to the ground.

"Hinata!" Arisa tried to grab Hinata's hand, only to find her arms wrapped up in something which was moving down her neck. Her first assumption was snakes, but as they wrapped around her neck, she realized they were vines. Poisonous Ivy vines- common to the woods of Suna. She tried to tear through them to no avail, meanwhile Hinata was screaming as the skeletal hands pulled her under the ground, her legs half submersed as though in quick sand. Arisa shouted for help as she kicked against the roots, but the vines reached her face, gagging her and cocooning her in them.

Arisa began to blink out of consciousness.

Her last thoughts were of confusion.

 _What was going on?_

* * *

She felt herself being violently shaken.

Sitting up, she found herself to be sitting on the ground, her arms and legs fine. No vines. Looking up, she saw Kakashi looking at her, a worried expression on his face.

"Arisa, are you okay?"

Arisa looked around, saying, "Hinata-?"

"I'm here. I'm fine." Hinata's voice came from behind Kakashi. She was sitting a few feet away from Arisa, clutching her ankle.

"But then, the vines and skeletons? What did you do?" She asked Kakashi.

She received blank stares and confused looks in answer to her questions. "Arisa, you're confused. On your way back Hinata and you tripped and fell, Hinata twisted her ankle and you hit your head on a tree. I came along in this direction to find the both of you." Kakashi said, recounting what he thought had happened. " Should I call a medic to check your condition?"

Arisa ran her hand through her hair, confused and said, "No. I'm fine. Forget what I just said."

Had she been hallucinating with the skeletons and the vines? She didn't think so. Actually, she was sure not. Hinata's ankle was definitely injured, and it was not from tripping. Did Kakashi know this? Or did he honestly believe what he had told her? And did Hinata not remember? Probably not, or else she would look more scared. Then what was happening? She rubbed her neck where the vines had been a few minutes ago. There was a thin indentation there, proof that the vines had been there. But it should have been much more severe. Arisa decided to let it slide for the moment, and go along with what they thought was the truth.

* * *

"Hey, what took you so long- Oh wait, what happened to your leg, Hinata?" Naruto asked, his voice laced with concern. He watched the approaching forms of Arisa and Hinata, Hinata leaning Arisa's shoulder as she limped weakly. He rushed over to support her from the other shoulder, and would have picked her up if he weren't sure it would embarrass her to no end.

"I-I'm fine. I just tripped." Hinata said, while Arisa, who had been supporting her, helped her onto a chair

Sakura knelt by here foot and took Hinata's ankle in her hands inspecting it.

"I'm not going to ask you to move it, but it looks bruised. You probably shouldn't walk on it too much today. Maybe you shouldn't be sitting in a truck full of people on the way back either..." Sakura said.

"Hinata, you know your dad isn't going to be the least bit happy seeing this." Neji said.

Hinata said with a strained smile, "Don't worry, its fine, where do we go next?"

Shikamaru said, "We'll avoid going anywhere else for a while now. We really should wait till Choji and Kankuro come back from the food stalls. And Temari, Tenten and Ino went to join the dancing displays."

Sasuke smirked and said, "How about a game of truth and dare?"

* * *

The rest of the evening had been most enjoyable; the funniest moment being when Tenten dared Lee to run around the festival in his under wear carrying Neji on his back- of course, Neji refused, so the object was shifted to Naruto; the lamest being when Kiba had dressed Choji in a child's fairy costume.

It was about 7 o' clock when Arisa was walking to join her friends at the field where the festival's fireworks display was about to go off.

A hand landed on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see someone who was wearing a grotesque hawk-like mask.

"I-is there something that I can help you with, sir?"

No reply. She tried to remove his hand from her shoulder, but his grip was like a vice. She turned to face the man, who still kept his hand on her shoulder. Noticing the crowded stalls around them, she almost jumped with surprise. She must be seeing things. Everywhere she looked, she saw people wearing the same kind of grotesque bird masks. Her throat went dry at the sight. Then, they all stopped whatever they were doing and started walking towards her. Her instinct told her to run, but she was unable to escape the grip of the demonic man behind her.

Suddenly, she saw a large flash of light from the stall where the fireworks were being kept. The fireworks display must have started. She shifted her gaze to the people in front of her, and met the onyx eyes of one of them. She realized, they weren't wearing masks, rather, their faces looked like that. But how? It was impossible.

"D-demons"

It wasn't a question, nor was it an accusation. It was the only truth which she could conclude from the events of the evening.

And that was when all hell broke loose.


	7. Chapter 5

A flash of light, a deafening sound, and buildings tumbled down. The sound of the explosions echoed in Arisa's head as she looked around in confusion. Fire blanketed the festival stalls, the whole place was ablaze. All she could see were golden, red and blue. There had been an explosion? But how?

The demons had disappeared altogether, although she wasn't even sure if that's what she should call them.

She had to get out of there, she just had to. But would her friends be ok if she did? What about Cynthia? And where were they anyway? Come to think of it, she hadn't seen a single person ever since the explosion.

She looked around frantically, looking to find a safe passage through the fire, smoke and rubble. The tower clock in the middle of the festival read the time, analyzed the safest path, ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

She stopped when she found her escape route blocked by a ring of demons. These demons were different than the last, they had green faces which were covered in swirling white patterns. They would've almost looked beautiful, except for the fact that they were stopping her from escaping. A small part of her mind also registered that she had very little time before her respiratory system started inhaling too much smoke.

Arisa stepped away from the demons, and felt herself into the chest of another person.

"Kakashi?" She asked, looking back.

Kakashi's face was set in a frown, eyebrows furrowed.

"Arisa." He said, stepping in front of her, as though shielding her from the demons,

"Find Cynthia and Itachi. I'll find the others."

"But what about the-?" She stopped when she looked in front of Kakashi only to see the demons gone. Vanished. Just like before. What was going on?!

"There's no time to stall, they may be hurt." Kakashi interrupted her stream of thought, and she nodded, turning and running in the other direction.

While dialing Cynthia's cell phone, she ran past some of the buildings which had been caught in the blast. She heard a masculine voice call her name, "Arisa?"

Snapping around, she saw a pair of pupil less silvery eyes stare at her from under rubble.

"Neji?" she asked.

"Who else?" He grumbled.

"But-"

"I'm stuck here. My right arm's seemingly been crushed and so's my leg. Help me out." His voice was strained, as though he were in extreme pain

Arisa looked at the rubble over Neji, gauging if her physical ability alone would be enough to help him. Deciding it was, she moved to where he was and moved a few pieces of building parts. She dragged him out of there, supporting him on her shoulder as she stood.

"Are you okay to move?" She asked.

He seemed to be humiliated having been saved by her. Perhaps having a girl save him was a blow to his pride. Begrudgingly, he said, "You don't need to worry about that. Where are the others?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to call Cynthia, but she's not picked up yet."

"Try again."

Arisa was mildly annoyed with his telling her what to do, but nonetheless, she moved with Neji back onto the main street. In every direction, fires were still blazing harshly. It was a miracle that they hadn't had to deal with them yet.

"Arisa?"

Cynthia's voice came from the phone.

Bringing it to her ear, Arisa said, "Cynthia, where are you?"

"Umm...we're at the fireworks stall. Why?"

Arisa stopped walking, confusion apparent on her face, "The fireworks stall exploded. Cynthia, please don't joke around." The worry was evident in her voice.

"Joking? Ha, I think you're the one that's joking." She laughed a bit, "I'm at the fireworks stall with Itachi and Kakashi."

"Cynthia! There was an explosion at the fireworks stall! The whole festival is on fire! Are you drunk or something?!" Arisa was panicking now.

Cynthia's voice rang with concern as she said her next words, "Arisa, sis, are you okay? You're confused. There was no explosion. Are you in any sort of trouble- actually, stay right where you are, I'm coming to check up on you." She hung up the call.

Arisa stared at the screen of her phone for a minute. Her eyes widened in surprise as she noted the time, five minutes past 7. She looked around herself, Neji was nowhere to be seen. The stalls were all fine, as though nothing had happened to them. People stood at different stalls and displays. A kid bumped into her legs from behind, uttering a cheerful apology before racing ahead screaming with joy.

Arisa shook her head in confusion. What had happened?

* * *

Her phone rang again, the caller Sasuke. Picking up, Arisa heard Naruto's cheerful voice from the other end.

"Arisa! Where are you?! The fireworks are about to start! Come over here! Umm...Sasuke and Neji stole my phone that's why I'm using his."

"Neji? He's okay?" Arisa asked, still confused.

"Yeah, he's fine. Although I'm not sure why he wouldn't be. Why d'you ask?"

Arisa was quiet for a while.

"Arisa?"

"…Sorry, umm… it's nothing. I'll come and join you now."

"Be sure of it!-Hey wait, stop it Sasuke, don't break my phone! Sorry Arisa, I'mma have to save my phone now. Bye" He hung up.

Arisa took a shaky breath and looked around her to check if the stalls were really ok. Having decided there was no better alternative, she walked in the direction of the fireworks display.

As she broke into a jog, she bumped into a strange man.

"Sorry." She said. But the man caught her hand and when she looked to see his face, she saw the same hawk faced demon which she had encountered earlier on.

"Wha-?"

She tried to run away but its grip on her was as strong as it had been earlier- that is to say, unbreakable.

Arisa looked around her, and saw the same demons as before, surrounding her and blocking her view in all directions. "It's happening again." she whispered, before her vision blurred in the ensuing explosion.

* * *

This time when she analyzed the safest escape route. She decided to take the more dangerous one rather than the one she had taken last time. Seeing the central clock tower, the time once again read 7:13. Her instinct kicked in and she moved to escape.

Whilst running she bumped into Kakashi, though the surroundings were different.

"Kakashi!" She said, panicking.

"Arisa, are you ok?" He said, looking worried. "Come with me." he turned around, grabbing her arm and pulling her along through a path which would lead them to the woods.

He stopped suddenly and she almost ran into his back as she looked up. In front of them were the same green demons as before, which blocked their path. Kakashi turned around, put his hand on Arisa's shoulder and said, "You go back the way we came, and find another way to get to the woods. There's a lake in the middle, stay by that."

Arisa was confused, why was Kakashi acting like that? "What about you?"

A crash came from behind them, the sound of the green demons moving closer, and Kakashi said, "Go! Go now!"

Arisa turned around and ran, but when she looked behind her, both the demons and Kakashi were nowhere to be seen. She heard a scream to her right and looked to find Sasuke on the floor, writhing in pain.

"Sasuke?"

She realized that his jacket had burned through and his arm was badly burned.

"Are you okay?"

He looked at her, eyes coming into focus, saying, "I got careless, my arm's badly burned. The fire's gone though."

"But...Naruto? Sakura? Where are the others?"

"I have no idea,"

Arisa helped Sasuke up and said, "Kakashi told us to go to the lake in the woods nearby. I think he knows where the others are."

"Let's go there then, Try calling the others."

Arisa couldn't even begin to comprehend what was happening. So somehow, when it happened the first time, it wasn't real? And the rest of it was a repetition? But it didn't play out in the exact same manner, she had found Sasuke, not Neji.

She took out her phone and dialed Cynthia's number. She picked up on the second ring, as Arisa and Sasuke started moving towards the woods.

"Arisa?"

"Cynthia, are you okay?" Arisa's voice was strained.

"Umm...yeah," Cynthia giggled slightly, "Actually, I'm great. Why wouldn't I be?"

Arisa's eye widened in surprise. Again? Cynthia's reaction was almost the same as the last time.

"B-but, the explosions, the fire, where are you?"

"Honey, I'm at the mask stall with Itachi."

"What?! No..."

"I know, right? I'm alone with him, Kakashi went somewhere else. What explosion?"  
Arisa looked around, and her eyes locked onto the burning banner of what used to be the mask stall, which happened to be near her location. The whole display was on fire, and the roof had already caved in.

"Cynthia, you are not in the mask stall. It's on fire." It was the only thing Arisa could say. How else was she supposed to reason with whatever was happening?

Cynthia laughed, "On fire? Okay, maybe it's popular, but definitely not on fire. Why would it be in the first place?"

"There's been an explosion! Cynthia, where are you?!" Arisa's voice was pleading, almost on the verge of tears.

Cynthia's voice was soothing, quiet and concerned. "Sis, there is no explosion. Where are you? Are you okay- I'm coming to find you now. You're worrying me."

Arisa closed her eyes shut tightly, as though she could block out everything which was happening around her like that. She scrolled through everything she knew in her head, looking for something, anything, which could provide an explanation for this turn of events. She found nothing.

She heard Cynthia end the call, and she opened her eyes. Once again, she was in the middle of a crowded, unharmed festival, which had been untouched by any sort of explosion. She looked at the lock screen of her phone, almost instinctively, and saw the time; 7:05.

* * *

She took several shaky breaths. Was she going mad? She desperately wanted to see Cynthia. Cynthia had always been there for her, and would definitely know what was happening to her. But what if she didn't believe her?

Arisa stood in that spot for several minutes, and simply observed the people walking past her. Nothing seemed to be amiss. Nothing to even hint that what Arisa had just witnessed ever happened. She almost felt her mind torn apart in the turmoil. What was wrong with her?

She felt a hand touch her shoulder and she jumped, turning around, almost panicking.  
Cynthia stood behind her, a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay? Did something happen?"

Arisa hugged Cynthia and held on to her, standing like that for a while.

"It's okay; you can tell me what's wrong. I'm here now."

Arisa let out a long sigh of relief.

"I'm okay. I'm still alright."

Cynthia smiled, and Arisa drew back to look at her properly.

"Okay, now that you're alright, tell me, _where is it_?" She hissed the last words as her face contorted into the same hawk like face which she had come face to face with twice before.

Frantic, Arisa stepped back, almost screaming, "Who are you?! What do you want?! Why are you doing this?!"

"You are a fool to not know. Where is it!" The demon hissed.

Arisa almost had tears in her eyes, "What have you done to Cynthia!?" She screamed and looked around her, the monsters weren't surrounding her, in fact there was no one. Everybody must have been at the field, ready for the fireworks. Everybody except her.

She heard her phone ring, but she couldn't move to answer it, and neither did the demon. She looked into it's beady eyes for a moment, half expecting the festival to blow up.

At the sound of the first fireworks shooting into the sky, she looked up. At first she was dazzled by the bright colours, but then her eyes widened in surprise as the saw the bright sparks combine to spell out the words, "Prepare to die!"

And then once again, her world exploded as she ran for her life away from the demon.

* * *

"G-Gaara?!" Arisa asked, as she drew back having collided with the red haired boy.

"Arisa." He said, a frown etched on his face. "It's not safe here."

"Where are the others, have you seen my sister?" She had seen nobody. Not a single person. Why did people keep on randomly showing up? Utter madness…confusion…

"They are not the ones in trouble. You're the one they're after. Come with me."

Arisa had had enough of being bossed around without being told a thing of what was going on, but it seemed she had no choice but to tag along with Gaara. His grip on her arm was as strong as the demon's which had grabbed her earlier; besides, Gaara was a friend wasn't he?

He dragged her along for what seemed like an hour, though it was probably only 15 minutes, until they reached the sea. Arisa was confused why Gaara chose to take her to the beach. Suna had a lot of beaches but this was the largest and incidentally the one where a great white shark had tried to kill her when she was 6 years old. Naturally, she tried to avoid that beach.

They kept running over sandy soil until they reached a cliff rising out of the water. At the base of the cliff, Gaara led her to a small, dark cave and said, "Stay in here."

"B-but-"

He pushed a large boulder in front of the cave entrance.

Arisa cursed to herself. The boulder would fit right in with the rest of the cliff face, and nobody would find her unless Gaara came back to get her out. What on earth had he been talking about? She had seen the size of that boulder, no way could one man move it let alone move it with one hand in the casual manner Gaara had done. What was going on? She took out her phone, trying to call Cynthia, but got no connection. Not just that, she was starting to panic. Maybe Gaara, whatever he was trying to do, had put her in that cave to keep her safe- but the thing he didn't know is that she was extremely claustrophobic. She used all the strength she could muster, desperately trying to move the boulder and get out of the cave. She could no longer think rationally, the walls of the cave were moving in on her, just like that time... That time... So long ago...

Hyperventilating, she sunk to the ground, curling up in a ball, screaming and sobbing violently.

At the end of the day, she was still back to the one place she never wanted to be. No matter how hard she tried... Weak and helpless...as always.


	8. Chapter 6

"Is there really going to be anyone at the beach?" Lee asked Neji.

"Well, we're here anyway. This is where Cynthia told us to go, and with the number of people unaccounted for, it's more than likely that people are here." He replied.

Walking along the shoreline, the two boys were looking for any people from the festival that had somehow ended up on the beach. They had all escaped the explosion unscathed, and from what Itachi had told them, the same could be said for most people. Choji, Gaara, Arisa, and Ino were still missing though. The police were trying to account for everyone who had gone missing in the confusion. Cynthia had told them that it was a terrorist activity.

Lee looked at the cliff, "Do my ears deceive me or did you hear that too, Neji?"

Neji looked at Lee blankly, "What nonsense are you on about now?"

"I am quite sure that I heard someone screaming. And not screaming like Sakura does when she is angry with Naruto; I am talking about actual screaming."

Unamused, Neji said, "Where from?" skeptically.

"This way!" Lee said, pointing towards a large cliff, "Come on!" He sprinted in the direction of the cliff.

Nearing the cliff, Neji could hear none of the screaming Lee had mentioned. "You're being silly Lee, there's nobody screaming."

Lee, however, was walking along the base of the cliff, with his ear to the cliff wall. "You are right. Nobody is screaming. They are now muttering to themselves." He pointed to a large boulder which rested, among many, at the base of the cliff. "Someone is in there."

Neji moved closer and, to his incredulity, found that he had indeed heard someone crying faintly.

"They're behind the boulder. Must be a cave of some sort. But, how to move the boulder?" He asked, looking in Lee's direction, only to find that the bushy browed teenager was nowhere to be seen. He then turned around and saw him several meters away from them, running towards the boulder at full speed.

Surprisingly, though Lee did not succeed in shattering the rock as he intended, the rock did move. From Lee's angle, he successfully moved the boulder enough to see what was behind it, which turned out to be a small cave. It was dark, but the moon was out, and a thin sliver of moonlight entered the cave, illuminating a sobbing figure with long dark hair shadowing most of her face.

A single eye peered up at them, and it wore an expression of pure terror as it moved away from the cave opening.

Using his phone light, Neji realized with a sickening sensation that the girl was someone who they knew.

"Arisa?"

"She must be afraid of the dark or something." He thought as he went into the cave, picking her up gently from the dark imposing cave and carefully bringing her out. She seemed to be completely shocked.

"What do you think happened to her? How long has she been in there?" asked Lee.

"Either way you should call the others telling them we've found her. Maybe her cousin will know what to do." Neji said, as he set her down on the sand. She held her hands on either side of her head, knees tucked in close to her chest. She was shaking uncontrollably, and seemed to be oblivious to their discussion.

She looked so weak in that state... So vulnerable... Like a glass doll. As though the slightest touch could break her. She would probably hate them for finding her in that state...but be equally as grateful for saving her.

"Arisa"

Neji's voice was calm and gentle. Seeing as she showed no signs of response, he said a little more forcefully, "Arisa!"

Her head snapped up, eyes darting around like a wild cornered animal. They focused on his, and he saw a flicker of recognition pass through hers.

"Hyuga." She muttered, short of breath.

He sighed in relief, glad to have finally elicited some sort of reaction from her.

It disturbed him greatly seeing her like that... As though she was broken and would never be sane again. It only serves to further intrigue him, and didn't do anything to quell the urge to protect her that was gnawing at him for reasons unknown.

She looked at his face, registering his features, saying, "Neji."

"You're okay. Did you get injured in the explosion?"

Her eyes widened in fear again, "N-no way to escape….S-so much blood." She started muttering again, panicking. "E-everyone's d-dead...I-It's happening a-again!" she clung to the first thing she could find, which happened to be Neji, and started shaking violently, whimpering slightly.

Neji realized she may as well have been talking about some traumatic event from her past. The same kind of traumatic event Naruto kept searching for. Was she talking about the middle school incident which Gaara had told them about? Or something else?

With no idea what to say to that, he stayed silent, as the girl clung to him like a child and cried. His hand unconsciously rose to cradle her head as she shook and shivered manically.

Shortly after, Lee came to join them, acting surprisingly mature for his standards by asking, "Is she okay?"

Neji looked at him exasperatedly. "Does she look okay?"

Suppressing a laugh, Lee said, "She looks more than comfortable hugging you, which is surprising seeing how averse you are to physical contact. Especially with girls." Lee's expression then became more solemn, "But you are right, she does not look okay. I spoke to Itachi. He said that they found Ino and Choji, and Gaara showed up too. According to Cynthia, most of the other civilians have also been accounted for. Kakashi's nowhere to be seen though. It's a good thing that the major part of the festival took place away from the main city, or else there would be so much damaged property…"

Lee looked away, as though lost in thought. A sudden thought caused him to speak again, "But I told Itachi about Arisa. He seemed concerned that she was stuck in a small cave, apparently she's severely claustrophobic."

"Did he say anything on how to help her?" Neji asked. What Lee was saying was important, but not relevant to the immediate situation, and it was infuriating.

"He said that if we submerged her head in water for about thirty seconds or so, it should do the trick. She should become aware of her surroundings and be freed from her condition."

Neji looked uncertainly at Lee, who was beaming back at him saying, "He was absolutely sure that this would work! He also said that we should hurry as the tide will be coming in quickly now!"

They took her to the water's edge and submersed her head under the cold salty seawater.

Almost as soon as the water touched her face, she gasped and sat up, blinking rapidly, spluttering and coughing. Her eyes coming into focus, she looked around her, and recognized Lee and Neji.

"Why are you here? What time is it?"

Neji looked at her, confused. The time was an odd question to be asking when you were only just hyperventilating from being trapped in a gloomy dark cave. What thoughts were racing through that pretty little head of hers?

Lee looked at the watch on his left hand and said, "It is 7.05 pm."

Arisa's eyes widened in shock.

Neji sighed, still confused by her sudden question, but more exasperated with Lee. Putting a hand to his forehead saying, "Lee, it is not 7.05 pm. It can't be. Your watch stopped working yesterday, remember? It's almost nine at night."

Arisa said, "Cynthia? The others? What happened after the explosion? The demo-" She stopped short.

What had she been about to say? A slip of tongue? A reference to the terrorist attack? (he was still skeptical about if it really were a terrorist attack) Something she saw inside the cave?

"They're saying it was a terrorist attack. Nobody got hurt, but a few people are still missing. You were inside a cave? How did you get there?" Neji asked.

"I'm not sure. I think I passed out after the explosion." Neji got the feeling she was lying through her teeth; his brain working to think of what she could be hiding.

Despite his suspicions, he mentioned nothing when he spoke next, still being careful for fear of hurting her in any way.

"Everyone is worried about you. You were in quite a state when we found you."

Arisa looked down sheepishly. "Umm... about that, could you do me a favor and not mention to the others exactly what happened?"

Sensing her embarrassment, they both agreed.

"Thanks." She looked at Neji, and added, "For everything…"

She needn't say anymore, as Neji understood what she meant. Something at the feline curve of her grateful smile was incredibly endearing to him.

Lee shouted in surprise and said, "Run!"

They all looked in the direction he was pointed and saw a large wave moving towards them. At the height it was coming towards them at, it would surely crush and drown them.

Scrambling to his feet, Neji scooped Arisa in his arms before giving her a chance to protest, ran in the direction of the forest, after Lee.

But it didn't look like they were going to be fast enough.

He turned around and looked at the large wave coming their way. He could almost feel it radiating malicious intent, but of course, that was silly. In the light of the moon, he could almost see it glowing. A faint, sickly purple glow, malevolent. Even after the strange events of the night, a wave with killer intent was more than absurd, it was childish. He looked down to see if Arisa saw the same thing he was seeing - perhaps she had for her eyes widened in fear before she squeezed them shut, bracing for impact.

Neji could almost see faces...humanoid, scaly faces, in the wall of water. But that was impossible, right?

He braced for the impact of the wave, and prepared for the onslaught of water, but it never came. Opening her eyes, he saw a barrier of sand blocking the wave. He rubbed her eyes. A barrier of sand? Impossible. He must be seeing things.

He looked down at Arisa to find a confused expression on her face. Had she seen the same thing he was seeing?

The barrier disintegrated and rejoined the sand beneath their feet. He looked at Lee, who had apparently not seen the sand barrier. Running, he shook his head and dismissed the sight, attributing it to too much adrenaline, joined Lee, following him to the festival site where the others were.

He didn't hear the small whisper of the girl he cradled gently in his arms.

"Perhaps I really am going insane..."

Once again, what had happened?

* * *

Arisa left school early the following day. Without telling anyone, she disappeared as soon as the lunch break began.

The journey back to Konoha the previous night had been postponed till the following morning, where they took a bullet train to Konoha at five in the morning. Upon arriving at Konoha, they all had ample time to return home and get ready for school.

Arisa had also had plenty of time to think about an explanation to what had happened at the festival the previous day. Starting with what happened with Hinata in the forest- right up to what happened at the beach with Neji; the whole thing had shaken her more than she let on. She kept on running all possible answers in her mind- something told her it was somehow related to her arrival at Konoha, and the nightmares she had been having.

And what had happened on the beach was a whole other story. She hated being seen as weak and vulnerable- and that was exactly what had happened the previous night. She had descended into the darkest corners of her mind- pockets of despair that she tried so hard to lock away permanently. As though she were an island. Drowning in an endless sea. And yet, when she recalled the way she had woken in Neji's arms, and the way seeing his face as soon as she woke up made her feel so safe...she couldn't put a name to the conflicting emotions it sparked within her. He calmed the raging sea within her- rather, for that moment, he _became_ it. The entire morning, she had flitted around Neji, trying to avoid him- half because she was embarrassed that he had to see her in such a state, and half to quell the storm which the memory ignited withing her.

In the end, after extensive thought, her conclusion: she could find no answers on her own. And that brought her back to Suna, to the front door of the building she knew housed the Sabaku siblings.

The bullet trains between Konoha and Suna really were useful.

She knocked on the door. The week of Suna's festival was usually a holiday week, so surely someone would answer her, right?

To her luck, the one answering the door was the one she was looking for; Gaara.

"Hello?" He said, dark rings circling his eyes giving him the appearance of a raccoon.

"We need to talk." Arisa said curtly.

"No we don't." He said bluntly, shutting the door as though he already knew what she wanted to talk about. Which he probably did.

Her hand blocked him.

"Yes we do." she said, calm, but with a threatening edge to her voice.

"I have nothing to say to you." he said, just as calm, perhaps even more threatening.

"Well I have something to ask you."

"I have nothing to answer to you."

"I advise you let me in before I do it myself."

"You can't force yourself into someone's house like that."

"I'm not leaving till I have answers."

"Fine then…" he said, stopping their rapid exchange. Arisa looked at him suspiciously, not sure that he would agree so easily. "… Don't leave… But don't come in." He said, moving to shut the door.

Arisa's eyes narrowed and she stared at him for a long time, stopping the door from closing with her hand. Finally, she said, "I have a right to know what's going on."

"Do you?" Gaara asked, eyebrows raised.

Arisa continued to glare at him. Gaara was about to shut the door when he heard her say, "Please."

Her angry expression had all but vanished from her face. Her eyes were wide, and pleading, and frightened, at the same time humiliated at having to resort to that. "I need to know."

With a sigh, Gaara opened the door and said, "Come inside."

As she followed him into the house, she asked, "Where's Kankuro? Temari?"

"They're out. They'll be back soon."

He led her into what looked like his bedroom and shut the door behind them. Had she not been so concerned of what she was about to ask, she would have been much smarter than to willingly walk into a strange boy's bedroom and let them be alone in there behind closed doors.

"What happened yesterday was not normal." She said.

"A terrorist attack is certainly not your everyday event." Gaara scoffed.

"I'm not talking about that." She looked him in the eye, "You moved a boulder that should have taken several men to move with one hand as though it were a feather. You have a grip stronger than any normal person can maintain, and you're unfathomably fast. The trip from the forest to the beach normally takes almost seventy five minutes- you covered it in fifteen. Not to mention, you saw the same creatures as I did. You mentioned them while talking to me. What are you? What do you know?"

"You're drawing rash conclusions from indefinite facts." He said, his face impassive.

"I know what I saw. The explosion repeated itself twice before it actually happened, and the fireworks spelled out a message. Twice I was blocked by absurd demons." Arisa stated all of the facts calmly, in a chilly tone.

"Have you listened to yourself talking? Think about what you're saying. You sound ridiculous. _It was a terrorist attack._ " His last sentence sounded different. There was a change in his tone, which Arisa couldn't place, but she felt herself subconsciously agreeing with him. Perhaps she was indeed imagining things. It was a harmless terrorist attack.

No. Arisa snapped back to her original stream of thought, realizing that something else not originating in her own mind had persuaded her to agree with Gaara. She looked at his face, suddenly feeling far more intimidated by the redhead.

"No. It wasn't a terrorist attack. What are you doing? What was that just now?" she snapped.

Gaara's eyes widened in momentary confusion. "How did you-What are you talking about?"

"Tell me what it was!" She said agitatedly, "It wasn't normal. What are you?... What happened at the festival last night?" her voice had almost risen to a shout as she spoke, steadily becoming more demanding and forceful. At her last question, however, her voice had dropped to a low deadly quiet whisper. It was enough to send shivers up anyone's spine.

"Nothing. It was nothing. I am nothing unordinary. A terrorist attack happened at the festival last night." He addressed each of her questions with the same answers in a steely tone.

"You are lying," her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Why must you believe that I hold the answers?" He asked.

"Why must you insist on not telling me the truth?" She countered.

"You have no ground to stand on. I could force you to leave, this very moment."

"I have my intellect. I want answers, and this is where I start my search."

"'I want' does not get. You should be at school now."

"Gaara, please don't do this." Arisa looked at him entreating. She felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

Gaara was quiet for a long time.

"You are in danger. They want you dead." His voice was low, and Arisa almost didn't hear him.

"What? Who are 'they'?" Arisa asked.

"I am not the one you should be asking. I am not even on your side."

She had already anticipated something like that, but she still had to ask, "Then why did you help me?"

"I didn't."

An obvious lie, but Arisa wouldn't pursue the topic.

"So who am I up against?"

"Ask Kakashi."

"What?!" Her eyes widened momentarily. She had suspected that Kakashi may be involved somehow, but she didn't expect such a blatant statement.

"I said, ask Kakashi."

"Kakashi isn't a part of this."

"You realize you're lying through your teeth and you know it."

"I've known Kakashi for long enough to know that he couldn't be involved."

"You've known him for long enough, huh? You trust him?"

"Of course I do. He's like an elder brother."

"Have you known him for over five hundred years?" Gaara's voice was almost teasing her. Mocking her.

Her eyes widened further. "That's- that's impossible…'"

"I think we've long left the real of possible or not, don't you think?"

He was right. But she didn't want to believe him "How am I supposed to believe you anyway?"

"You are the one who came to me for answers. Look behind the mask and see the truth in my words."

"You're the only one who seems to have any clue as to what happened."

"Well, I have presented you with another clue."

"I don't believe you." Arisa said, in a chilly undertone.

"Then have a look for yourself. But know this, you came to me of your own accord. I am not in any way your ally."

Arisa heard the sound of glass breaking. Spinning around, she saw that a glass which had been on the table had fallen and cracked. Then another loud thump sounded from her right. A book fell from the bookshelf. Then another. And another. Soon, the entire bookshelf fell over.

"What…?" Arisa started.

A light bulb exploded above her and she found herself dodging the debris. Looking at Gaara, she felt her eyes widen in surprise. He was surrounded by…energy? A swirl of sand and some sort of red energy surrounded him, and his eyes almost blazed. Stepping back rapidly, Arisa said, "What are you-?"

"You have overstayed your visit here." Pictures flew off the walls as though an invisible wind whipped through the room. Pages blew in all directions.

Gaara looked at her, a strange look in his eyes, as he said, " _Go_."


	9. Chapter 7

It was near 3 o clock when Arisa knocked on the door of Kakashi Hatake's ruin of a house. She had never actually been there before, but from what Cynthia had told her, it was a pigsty. From how it looked outside, Arisa half expected flying pigs to come out of the large chimney which sat atop it.

Kakashi answered the door.

"Arisa! What brings you here? House visits are rare…By the way, where did you disappear to after lunch? Your friends were worried about you…" Kakashi stepped aside, letting her enter his house. That was far easier than it had been to get Gaara's cooperation. They walked into what should have been his living room, but it was in a pitiful state. She didn't feel the least bit inclined to sit down on any of the seats in the room.

"I was in Suna."

She looked at Kakashi, who seemed to be slightly worried by her statement. "Why? I'd have thought that after everything that happened last night, you wouldn't be so eager to go rushing back there?"

"I spoke to Gaara."

Kakashi's brow furrowed. "Spoke to him about what?"

"Last night."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile appearing on his face. "I was unaware that you were sexually involved with the Suna boy. Is it a sudden fling? You spent one or two nights together already?"

"I'm not talking about anything of the sort. I mean what happened at the festival." Arisa said, exasperatedly.

"And why would you think that he would know anything? I thought you'd ask your cousin for information." Kakashi said, as though he had no idea what she was about to say.

Arisa paused. Was she about to make a mistake? Maybe Kakashi had no role or knowledge of what had happened. What if she was about to do something which may as well lose his trust in her and her sanity?

"What happened last night?" She asked him.

"Last night? I thought we were all aware, it was a terrorist attack." Kakashi said, looking at her as though she had asked something incredibly stupid.

Arisa took a deep breath and said, "I'm not talking about a terrorist attack. I'm talking about the demons."

"Aaand, I have no idea what you're talkin' about." Kakashi said, looking at her skeptically.

"Don't play dumb. You know something." Arisa said. Though she wasn't entirely sure about this statement, it was one of the only conclusions she could draw on her way back to Konoha.

"Umm…No I don't. And why would you visit Gaara for something like this? Don't tell me he thinks you're a mental patient now."

"Kakashi, be serious." Arisa said impatiently.

"Unless 'demons' are some secret code name for a terrorist organization, then I have no idea what you're trying to say."

Arisa sighed in frustration.

"Where were you last night during the explosion?"

"Umm… I got lost." He said, scratching the back of his neck. "I was trying to find Cynthia when I ran into a tree! I ran into a tree and got knocked out."

"You're smarter than that. What really happened?" Arisa asked.

"Umm, well…umm, Okay! Fine! I went to eat ramen! You got me!"

"That makes no sense. Where on earth would you get ramen from?"

"Umm…Umm…Konoha?"

"You're a better liar than that." Arisa said. It was her turn to be skeptical.

Kakashi looked down defeated.

"What were you doing?" she asked.

Kakashi remained silent.

"Kakashi!" Arisa said, exasperatedly.

More silence.

Arisa stayed quiet for a while. Finally, she got up and said, "Take off your muffler."

Her voice was a low whisper.

"Okay…" He removed his muffler. Below that lay a medical mask, as he always wore.

"Take off the mask." Arisa said her voice steely.

"Umm…why?" he asked, his hand once again scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Arisa took a step towards him. "Just take it off. And the eye patch too." She brought a hand up to the corner of the mask as though to take it off herself.

"Wait a minute- what?-you can't do that!" he said, as she pulled the mask and eye patch off his face.

He stood before her with nothing left to cover his face. For the first time in history, a human being had actually seen the whole of Kakashi Hatake's face.

* * *

Arisa stepped back in confusion.

In front of her, was the _perfectly normal_ face of Kakashi Hatake, a thin scar over his eye, and his usually smiling face set in an ominous frown.

And then, he started laughing.

Gentle at first, but hysterically uncontrollable with every passing second.

"Arisa..." he said between laughs, "..I think...you've actually...gone _completely insane_!"

His laughter changed. More manic. Colder. Harsher. Crueler.

"Did you honestly think..." he stopped laughing and stood straight, his eyes closed, his voice even as he moved closer to her, "That a _demon_ of my level, couldn't conceal himself?" His voice had a malevolent edge to it, as his eyes opened, facing her with blood red glowing irises surrounded with pitch black sclera.

Arisa stood there in shock. Not trying to step back, not screaming in fear either. She stood calmly, but her horror was evident in the way her voice shook as she spoke.

Before her stood a man whose face was half skeletal. There was no skin covering it. Jagged scorch marks and cracks ran up the skull. A skeletal jaw, skeletal eye socket, and those eyes. Bloodthirsty vortexes of red an black. She knew those eyes. It was death itself, and Arisa knew it well. If she thought she had looked death in the eye before, now it stood in front of her.

"Y-you're one of them. You-you're a d-demon."

"Hn, took you long enough to figure out."

Arisa's eyes widened at the change of his tone, none of the friendliness with which he always addressed her. His voice was cold and mocking.

"B-but we've known you for so long, and you-"

"You know nothing about me. Nor does your cousin. Nor does that fool Itachi. You wanted to know the truth?" He said sarcastically. " Yes! There were demons last night. Every last one of them there, had a single objective: To kill you! Be scared for your life, Arisa," He wore a crooked demonic grin, which looked downright terrifying on his half-skeletal face. Although what he said was anything but funny, he was smiling as though it was the best possible news anyone could deliver.

"K-kill me?"

"They want you dead. And we carry out their bidding."

"W-we?"

"Even Gaara. Even me."

Arisa looked at him in semi-disbelief. She wanted desperately not to believe him. But how could she not? The proof was in front of her. There he was- a demon.

"Not a single one of them wants to help you. You are all alone."

Arisa was quiet for a while, trying to figure out the exact implications of what he was saying. But she was too shocked and frightened. Her mind refused to function.

"Then why haven't you killed me yet?" Arisa's voice was no longer trembling. She was once again impassive: calm and composed.

"You can call it my little game. I wanted to see how much you could grow. Before I crush you."

Looking at the slightly maniacal look in his eyes, she stepped back.

"So…all alone with no help, you might as well give up. Run away with your tail between your legs. What will you do now?"

Arisa looked at him, her resolve hardening, "You aren't going to hurt me. Not yet. And I will find a way around them. Even if it's me against everything else, I will not run away, nor will I back down."

She turned her back on him and walked towards the door. She left his house, slamming the door shut.

* * *

It was quarter to four, and Arisa was on the school grounds. Since it was a Friday, the school had no ongoing after school activities, so the school building looked as lonely as her grandfather's mansion did.

Why was she there? She had used the majority of her morning self study period to check all known books and references from the school library, to tell her something about the past she had seen in her nightmare two nights ago. The school library mainframe was directly connected to Konoha's public library, but still she found nothing about any sort of palace like the one she saw in her dream. It wasn't much of a lead for her to be following, but she knew for a fact that she couldn't entirely rule out the possibility that the item the demons had asked her about was directly related to what she had seen in her nightmare.

After some extensive searching, even using Cynthia's credentials to look into national records, she found that there were only two books which might even lightly touch the subject which she was looking for. Both of them were restricted texts in the national archive. Only high ranking government officials could access those.

Although what had just went down in Kakashi's house had shaken her to the core, she had meant what she said before. She would find out why she was being chased by demons.

Walking around the humanities annex, she saw a man with short black hair sitting on a bench outside. On his lap sat a small brown Abyssinian cat, which he was stroking tiredly. The man was as old as her grandfather would have been, had he still been alive. This was the man whom she had come to the school to see. His name: Danzo Shimura. Who also happened to be her headmaster.

She had heard from Sakura and Tenten that he knew a lot about the history of Konoha. In fact, the reason why he ran the school was due to his interest in the ruins it was built on. If that was true, then maybe he could help her with what she needed to know.

"Mr. Shimura?"

He looked up, as did the cat, and saw her standing in front of him.

"Is there something which I can help you with ? You are Hiruzen's granddaughter, am I not correct?"

"Indeed I am. Arisa."

"Ah yes, Arisa. What brings you to an old man like me?"

"I have something to ask you."

"Something related to... ?"

"It's about Konoha."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Konoha in the past."

Danzo was quiet for some time. He then said, with a heavy sigh, "That would be your history teacher's area of expertise, don't you believe?"

"No. You are the only person who might know about what I'm going to ask."

He looked at her skeptically.

"And what sort of information might this be, which is so atypical that even your history teacher does not know about it?"

"Information which is stored in the restricted sections of the national archive. Information so little touched upon that there are only two books which may contain records with respect to what I want to know."

He grinned slightly, "Hn,"

"I'm talking about a palace that used to stand in Konoha."

"Dear child, it seems that you're confusing truth with legend. There never was a palace in Konoha."

Arisa hesitated- was she wrong? Perhaps she had come to the wrong conclusion? But it was still worth a shot to push it farther.

"I'm talking about the palace resided in by a certain 'Lord Jiraya'."

" There is no such 'lord'." he said, his face set in an aloof sort of amusement.

Arisa almost groaned in frustration. Why was everyone being so unhelpful? Twice she had persistently tried to get people to tell her the truth, twice they had insisted on hiding the greater part of what they knew. And now she had to deal with a senile old man who seemed to have a stick shoved too far up his rear.

"I'm not talking about any silly teacher in our school. I'm talking about the senile old hag I saw in my nightmare." Whenever Arisa was genuinely frustrated or angry, her voice tended to drop to a frosty undertone. A cold whisper, which infested her voice as she spoke now, for she was immensely aggravated. She even let slip facts about her nightmare which she had not at all intended to tell the old man sitting before her.

The cat, which was sitting on his lap until then, got up and jumped onto Arisa. Scrambling up the black cardigan which Arisa was wearing, it crawled onto her shoulder and sat at the joint of her neck and shoulder. It was small enough to sit there and mew contentedly.

Danzo's expression was one of alarm. He stood up and took a step towards Arisa, saying, "You've had nightmares since moving to that house?"

Arisa, startled by his sudden change in behavior, took a step back, saying, "What if I have? How does it concern you?"

"Come with me." He turned around and started walking out of the school grounds.

"What?" Arisa said to his retreating back.

Turning around, he looked at her and said, "It's not safe to talk about this in public. They could be watching."

Arisa was completely thrown off guard by the man's antics, but he was the only one who seemed willing to give her some solid answers. So, she shrugged and ran to catch up with him-for someone as old as her grandfather, he sure did set a brisk pace.

* * *

Arisa was led inside an ominous looking old mansion near the school - no doubt the headmaster's house.

He led her to the topmost floor leading her into what looked like his study. She noticed a picture which was on his desk. It looked old, and it showed a group of young adults- about twenty years old. One of the men Arisa recognized was her grandfather, who had his arm around the shoulder of another man with shoulder-length black hair.

"What's this?" Arisa asked, looking at the picture.

" An old picture of lost friends. " he said, a faraway look in his eyes.

"Why is my grandfather there? Who else is in that picture?"

"That picture was taken in the last summer we old friends all spent together. You recognize your grandfather. I am standing next to him."

Arisa looked at him in surprise. "You knew my grandfather?"

"Yes. We were close friends."

"And the rest of the people?"

" A few friends of ours. Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane." he said.

"Oh." she said.

" What happened to them?" she asked after a short pause, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Danzo looked down at the picture and said, " Dead. The next spring."

" How ?" Arisa asked.

"They died from the same thing that will try to kill you and your friends." Danzo said, looking up at her, a forewarning look on his face.

"What?"

He put the picture back on his desk.

"In the fourteenth century BC, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the exact history of this country. The line between truth and legend is, to many people, obscure. I have dedicated years to this research. I know what happened." he said.

"Fourteenth century BC? That's way too old." she said, thinking back to the formal attire she recalled from her nightmare.

"Or so you think." he said, speaking deliberately slowly "Konoha was chosen as a capital of a new era. A place to connect many worlds together. A place where all the races converge on our land. It was graced by an otherworldly being, who went by the name of Jiraya. His palace lay where Konoha now stands. he possessed fifteen curses."

"Wait a minute- otherworldly beings? Curses? You're making no sense."

He looked at her impatiently. "You are the one who asked me for answers. Listen to what I have to say, or leave."

Despite her confusion, she nodded.

"Jiraya was not human. he was far more powerful than any other race. He commanded them all- fifteen races for fifteen curses. He stayed in Konoha for two hundred years. When he left, he passed ownership of the curses to fifteen humans."

"Races include demons?" she asked.

"Yes." he said, "Unfortunately so."

"His decision to give the curses to humans was not approved of by all of the races. But the curses cannot be forcefully possessed. The curse chooses its host. Every time a host was born, the curse would somehow fit itself into the possession of the host. Those races which did not agree with humans possessing the race keys had but a single goal- to kill the host and take possession of the curse.

If the person in possession of the curse is killed, then the person who kills him becomes the next host. But Jiraya had foreseen this, and he left behind a binding oath which ensured that no other races could harm the hosts. The races found a way around that. Inevitably though, throughout history, whenever a host had been born, they would be short lived and soon killed by any of the races.

Ironically, the other races never found possession of the curses. Before they could kill a host, a new host would already present itself, and the curse would shift its ownership to the new host. And if not, Jiraya's last insurance was to leave behind a guardian- one who could not directly save the host, but could take the curse and watch over it until a new host is born.

Apparently, your grandfather and I were two such hosts. As were some of our friends. We each commanded a curse, although none of us ever know what the 'curse' object was. In the end, your grandfather and I were the only ones to survive the bloody onslaught of death that followed. Everyone we once knew died.

I have a theory as to how the two of us survived. Around the same time that our classmates were dying around us, your grandmother became pregnant with her first child. That child was your mother."

"She- she started a new generation of hosts, didn't she?" Arisa said, connecting the dots in her head, "A new generation of hosts which meant that your lives were no longer in danger. This is why my parent's- they- thirteen years ago- The Uchiha massacre, the attack on Konoha, the plane crash - it's all connected isn't it? They all died because of this! My parents died because of the demons! And- and- that's why this is happening, isn't it! We're the next generation of hosts!" Her head was whirring; so much made sense, but so much more was still unclear. Half of her was laughing at everything and dismissing it as nonsense.

"Yes. Your whole life, you have been plagued by demons. Don't trust anybody. Not your friends, not your cousin, not even me. And not even yourself. Without you, there is no way to save them. You open the circle. A bloody circle riddled with pain. The Circle of Death."


	10. Chapter 8

Naruto watched from the window of Arisa's house as Arisa walked up to her front door, a tiny cat in her hands.

He watched her walk up to the front door, and the surprised look that crossed her face as she noticed the door was unlocked.

Maybe picking the lock hadn't been the best idea after all...

But it wasn't his fault! How was he supposed to know that nobody was home? He hadn't done much...just eaten a little...and waited for her to come back from wherever it was she was going.

Hearing her footsteps as she walked inside, he jumped towards the door to get out of the kitchen- back to the living room and away from all evidence of his exploits in the kitchen.

She walked in just as he was about to lunge out and he found himself crashing into the dark haired girl as she walked in- and almost instantly, he felt a hard knee hit him in the stomach and push him off.

In the confusion, he lay panting on the floor of the kitchen, half leaning on the legs of the table, while she lay in the doorway, slowly propping herself up against the door frame to pull herself to her feet.

"N-Naruto? What are you doing here?!"

"Arisa! We were all so worried that you were sick or something! It's good to see that you're okay!" he said, completely ignoring her question.

"How did you get here?" she asked, clearly surprised to see him, but relieved that it was him and not some burglar.

"Umm..." ' _She's so gonna be mad. Everyone always is_.' he scratched the back of his head sheepishly and said, "I picked the lock!"

She stared at him, blinking a few times in utter confusion, vexed.

"I can explain! I didn't mean to break an entry! Nobody answered the door! And I got worried that maybe something had happened! So I thought I'd let myself in and see if anything happened. And when you weren't home I just thought I'd wait till you came home! I'm sorry please don't be mad!" he said, wincing.

"No! No! I'm not mad...just a little surprised!" she said, laughing a little at his expression, and getting to her feet to offer him a hand and help him up.

"Umm..I ate some of the stuff in your fridge too. Sorry about that." he said.

"No problem." she said.

Slumping in relief, he took her outstretched hand and moved to stand on his feet, after which she said, "I'm just gonna get some milk for the cat I brought home today and then we can talk. It's way too undernourished to go without eating."

She took a saucer out of a cupboard, walked to the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk, filling it up, before noticing something missing and asking, "Not that I mind, but how much ice cream can you eat?!"

"I looked for ramen, but since there wasn't any, I settled for second best. Four boxes of icecream!" he said. For a minute, she was silent, and he frowned thinking he had gone a bit too far.

Then he noticed she was shaking with laughter. Wow. So she actually can laught.

"I don't believe this! Aren't you feeling sick or something?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

Taking the saucer of milk and walking about the room, she said, "So...other than seeing if I was okay or not, was there any other reason why you're here?"

She set the saucer down on a coffee table next to the couch.

"Not exactly- but wait, why did you leave school early? If you're not sick or anything..."

It had been confusing for all of them when she disappeared after lunch. They had been worried- but also suspicious as to what she had been doing. It only furthered the enigmatic impression they had of her.

"I had stuff to do." she said offhandedly.

"Stuff?" he asked, taking a leaf out of Ino's interrogation book.

The new kitten that Arisa had brought in slipped into the room and jumped on the table, slurping from the bowl there.

"I needed to make a trip to Suna."

"Suna? Like...underground stuff?" he asked, finding the idea somewhat chilling but thrilling.

"No. I had to pick up some stuff I left there this morning." she said.

"Oh. Okay cool, anyway, Sasuke and Sai were supposed to come here about now. Sakura and Hinata too. The rest might join in depending on what we do."

"What were you planning on doing?" she asked, curious. He noticed her tired appearance, and also how the tiny cat scrambled up her arm to rest on her shoulder.

"We'll figure out when they get here. You don't mind joining in, do you?" he asked.

"No. Just a little tired, that's all." she said.

"By the way," he asked, sitting down on her couch, "Who's that?"

He pointed at the cute brown cat sitting on her shoulder.

"Its an abyssian cat." she said.

He gave her a flat look. A look which conveyed that he hadn't understood a word of what she had said.

"That's a breed of cat. I picked it up on my way back from Suna. I haven't thought of a name yet."

"Cool! It's so small. It fits on your shoulder perfectly."

"Its probably only a few weeks old. I wonder how it got separated from its mother..."

"It's like a pixie! Or a fairy, whatever you want to call it. Hey! Pixie! That's a good name," he said, watching as the car purred softly and proceeded to rub its head against Arisa's neck. It looked ticklish to him- then again, he was super ticklish in general.

"Pixie? You think? I guess it is.." she looked down at the cat, "What do you think? Pixie?"

The cat purred again, content.

"I think it likes the name."

She sat down next to him on the couch and asked, "What happened at school after I left?"

"Nothing really." he said, thinking that idle gossip about how many girls Sasuke or Neji rejected, or how Sai had hurt Choji's feelings again by accident wouldn't interest her.

"Really? What about Hinata?" she asked.

"Hinata? What about her?" he said jumping slightly, his cheeks heating up slightly.

"She hurt her ankle? Remember?"

"Oh yeah," he said, realising what she was talking about, "She couldn't do much in the PE hour. I took her to the infirmary afterward, even though she protested against it and was all sweet and apologising the whole time, and she slept like a cute mouse afterward."

She smiled, saying, "Naruto..."

He looked up at her, suddenly feeling jumpy.

"How long have you liked Hinata for?" she asked.

"Huh? Like? I don't like Hinata. I mean no! I like her plenty! I don't liiike like her though." he said, his cheeks further heating up.

"Uh huh." she said, skeptically.

"Honest!" he said. He didn't like Hinata in that way. He didn't. Right?

"You know it's not like I'm going to go running to her and tell her." she said.

"Umm...maybe I do...butjustalittle!" he said, desperately wishing for a change of topic now.

"Okay...you can keep saying that." she said, "For now."

"Hey, lemme phone Sasuke and Sakura to tell them to get their lazy asses over here!" He said, far too flustered to focus on any conversation.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Sasuke's number.

"Hey Sasuke!" he said to the phone.

Sasuke's voice came from the phone, sounding as annoyed as always, "Yes?"

"Come on over here!"

"No."

"Come on...you didn't even ask where 'here' is."

"Like hell I'm going to a house which you broke into."

"Fine then, I'll tell Sai to force you."

"No."

"Ugh...just come!" he said, fed up with talking to Sasuke the metal wall. "Or else I'll tell mom!"

"No you won't."

"Yes I will. Besides, Arisa's already here and she's not angry about me breaking in. Never mind, just come here. And bring Sai and Sakura along too!" he said.

"Dobe..." was the only think Naruto heard before hanging up.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Sai, Sasuke, Naruto, and the rest of their group sat in Arisa's large, spacious , lavishly decorated living room. Sakura came in with Arisa helping her with the tray of drinks she had brought in.

"Umm…I don't really have much food at the moment, so if you're hungry you'll have to wait. Still, why exactly are we all here?" she said, as Sakura handed them drinks.

Naruto interrupted, "Exactly! What are we going to do? Sasuke? Sai?"

Sasuke glared at him and said, "You're the one who dragged us here in the first place."

"Yeah yeah, you know that you secretly wanted to come too!"

Sasuke grumbled, muttering "Presumptuous brat."

"Hey! Don't call me that!" Naruto said indignantly, "It's not as though you're any better, Teme!"

Sasuke glared at him again and said pointedly, "At least I don't go around picking people's locks and breaking into their houses. That's something only a Dobe like you could do."

"Oh really? I thought you didn't come with me because you were too chicken to help me."

"There is a thin line between Bravery and Stupidity."

"Yeah, and we all know which side of that line you're on. I for one, am on the side of Bravery." He puffed out his chest.

"No. You're not on either side. You're beyond both. It shouldn't be possible for someone as stupid as you to be alive."

"That's enough!" Naruto growled, clearly radically angered, launching himself at Sasuke. The sofa Sasuke was sitting on fell over, and the two wrestled on top of it.

Sakura watched Arisa watch them with a mixture of amusement and confusion. She looked at Sakura quizzically.

"This is normal for them." Sakura reassured her. "They've always been this way." she watched them wrestle on the floor for a while, then added, "They usually fight for about fifteen minutes before calming down, exhausted." She sighed, face palming. "Oi! What are we going to do now? Weren't you saying something about catching a movie?"She called out to Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto perked up, saying, "Oh yeah! Who wants to go and watch a movie?"

He was caught in the face by Sasuke's fist. They once again started wrestling.

Sai said, "Ugly is right, going to watch a movie is considered a social norm for people our age."

Arisa raised an eyebrow, "Ugly?" she said, looking from Sakura to Sai.

"Sai has a habit of giving people rather original nicknames…something which he read about in a book somewhere along the line…but seemingly, his nickname for me is Ugly." Sakura said, shrugging, "I don't think anything of it. He doesn't really mean it. If he really thought me ugly he wouldn't use a cherry blossom when drawing me."

Arisa almost laughed. "What about those two?" she asked looking at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Those two," Sai said, without showing any signs of laughing, "Are called Dick-less 1 and Dick-less 2."

Arisa doubled over in fits of laughter.

Naruto, on hearing the last part of their conversation, said, "Hey! That's not fair! You can't tell her about your useless nicknames without giving her one of her own."

"Umm..not now. Maybe later." Arisa said quickly stopping their efforts. Nicknames from Sai? What was the world coming to?

Naruto stuck his tongue out before getting off Sasuke and saying, "So…What movie do you want to go watch?"

Ino, who had flipped out her phone and was texting someone, said, "There's this cool chick flick out right now."

Neji rolled his eyes and said, "Of course, that's assuming that all us guys are secretly gay or are interested in that sort of thing."

Sakura blushed slightly said, "I didn't say that we were going to watch that. I was just saying that there's one out now. Hinata said that she'd prefer the animated movie which came out recently. Something from Dream works...?"

Kiba said, "C'mon, why don't we watch something cool! With guns and super powers!"

Sai said, "I believe the term is 'lame'"

"How troublesome...whatever you do, make sure I can sleep through it."

Arisa sighed and said, "Why do we even need to go out to watch a movie? I mean, I get it if you guys find it more comfortable going to a movie hall and watching it with a crowd, but you could watch whatever you wanted here."

"Oh yeah, that's right! You have a mini movie theater here, right? I forgot about that…" Sakura said.

Arisa's grandfather had loved watching movies but hated leaving the house to do it. His solution; bring the theaters to his home.

"So what d'you wanna watch?" Tenten asked.

"How about something cool. Do you have the hunger games?" Naruto asked.

"...I'm sure I'll find it somewhere."

"Okay then! Let's watch the Hunger games! Any objections?" he asked.

Seeing as nobody said anything against the movie, Sakura said, "Hunger Games it is."

* * *

Almost everyone was focused on the idiot who was jumping up and down hysterically, shouting, "I wanna watch the next one! I wanna watch the next one!" while the rest reprimanded him saying they were short of time. The credits kept playing as Lorde's 'Yellow Flicker Beat' played.

However one male Hyuga wasn't looking at the screen. He was looking around the room at the people seated there. Naruto was tearing up at the movie, Sasuke wore a 'not impressed' look as well as Sakura who was sitting right next to him. Hinata was blushing in Naruto's direction- his cousin had a strange taste in men.

The solemn mood from the previous night had finally lifted, which was good. Throughout the day at school, Tenten had been edgy and Lee withdrawn. Naruto was the same as always, and though everyone acted as they normally did, they were all a little shocked by the explosion which ended their time in Suna. But now, everyone seemed to be fine again. Everyone was in good spirits behaving as they usually did, while watching the movie. Shikamaru was back to his usual self, sleeping in a couch in one corner of the room. Even Shino was there, and nothing was amiss.

Despite everything; this was normal. It felt right. This was how things always should be between them friends. And even though Arisa was new here, her friendship was not out of place. Who knows what she had been doing for sixteen years in Suna, clearly she belonged with fit right in. And everyone agreed.

Neji still couldn't get the image of her shaking, scared figure from the previous night. For all her withdrawn self, and tall figure, whenever he thought back to that night, he couldn't think of her as anything but...small. Small enough to need protection. Part of him wanted that to be his protection. Irrational as it was, for he had only known her for two days, he felt it nonetheless.

His gaze wandered to her as he schooled his stream of thoughts into more rational territory, only to see her eyes suddenly widen in fear and shock.

He heard the music stop playing and looked at the screen.

His own eyes widened in shock.

A creature had appeared on the screen of the movie theater.

It looked like a grown woman whose face was covered in blood. Her hair was blonde and two identical black feathered wings sprouted from her waist. She looked like a fallen angel.

His thoughts went to the demonic faces he had seen in the waves the night before- the sand that rose to protect them as well. Was he not imagining things, then?

His eyes flickering towards Arisa, he noted the panicked yet fed up expression on her face.

"Beware!" the woman said with a wicked smile, and an accent which sounded British. It sounded superficially friendly, as though it were greeting long time friends. But it was cold and hollow.

Quickly looking around, it seemed like no one else had seen, or heard it.

He snapped back to the thing on the screen as it said, "Beware! Because if you don't hand it over to me, I will slaughter everyone you care about, one by one, and then kill you, and feed you all to those filthy demons and mangy mutts."

Not a word of it made sense to him.

She paused for emphasis, and dramatically added, "In fact, maybe I'll feast on you myself. Me, well I'm far above eating humans. I won't stoop to feeding on such puny races. I rather fancy myself a roasted dragon. But you, maybe I will eat you. After all, a curse bearer is oh so delicious! And of course, you have no idea what I'm talking about…I'll be seeing you around then. Hope you like my crows!" She shrugged and disappeared

The woman, though she sounded silly, seemed formidable to Neji. A quick look at Arisa told him that she was riddled with fear and confusion.

He turned back to the others, and saw Naruto waving a hand in front of Arisa's eyes, saying, "Hey Arisa! What up? You look like you saw a ghost."

They both snapped back to reality. He was almost tempted to believe that it wasn't real. But she had seen it too. And that meant one of two things- either it was real, or they both needed an appointment with a psychiatrist.

What surprised him the most was that Arisa seemed to understand most of what was said. And from the looks of it, she didn't like what she heard. To be precise, the look that had crossed her face was not one of mild fear or surprise; it was one of pure terror.

"Right! Do we go out somewhere and eat? Or go home? Or stay here?" Tenten asked.

"I don't think it's your choice to say that you want to stay here." Hinata said.

"Nonsense! If we want to stay and have dinner, you'll let us, right?"

Arisa looked at her uncertainly "Umm…well, I was planning on getting a takeout before you guys came."

"Rubbish! Choji can cook for everyone, so we can all eat together." Said Naruto.

"He's not your slave, you know." Ino said.

"Yeah, but…Choji is far better than any takeout place!"

Sighing, Choji said, "Because I'm being nice, I'll use your kitchen and cook something. But it won't be ramen." He looked pointedly at Naruto who pouted.

Smiling a little, Arisa said, "I've got to go and shut down the movie apparatus and whatnot. You guys go ahead into the dining hall and Choji can do whatever he wants in the kitchen. Feel free to explore the house."

She left the room. The rest of them went back to the living room. Neji followed Arisa. Maybe he would get some sort of answer.

Standing outside the door of the room which contained the projector, Neji looked through the window of the door. Inside, Arisa was looking through a file on the computer server. She had her back turned to him. He watched as she replayed the last few minutes of the movie that they had just watched. The playback showed no traces of the woman with black wings that had appeared. Strange.

Arisa leaned back in her chair and he heard her say, "It's not here. According to the file, nothing of that sort was supposed to show up on the screen. I guess it really was a demon…Maybe I really am going mad..."

Just then, she whirled around in surprise. Neji thought that he had been spotted, but apparently Arisa hadn't noticed him. Judging from the look in her eyes, she was looking at something which was inside the room. But there was nobody within.

"Wha-what do you want?! Why do all of you keep on following me?" She said frantically, a scared look in her eyes.

She wasn't talking to Neji, but he didn't know who she was talking to. There was no one in the room for christ's sake! After a while, she said, "I don't know where it is! I don't know what it is!"

Anger, fear, sadness, hatred: her face flickered with those emotions. She said, her voice hardening, her tone low and frosty, "I'd like to see you try. Come near them, and you'll be sorry you tried to mess with me." Once again, her face became a mask of impassiveness.

Just then, the sight of the flying monstrosity from the movie screen from before became visible, towering over Arisa, and a flock of large, beady red eyed crows flew at her, picking and pushing her down as she hit the floor. Hard.

At this point, Neji had had enough. He chose to make his entrance, and he thrust open the door to the room.

The thing disappeared just as quickly.

"Are you okay?" he asked, helping her to her feet.

She looked at him, her expression guarded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just tripped."

"You and I both know that's not what happened." he said dryly.

Arisa looked at him with pretended confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"What's going on? Who was that you were talking to?"

"I'm beginning to think you need a trip to the asylum."

"You're avoiding the main question." As cold as a rock. And as unwavering in conviction as she had been earlier in the day while interrogating Gaara.

"I was talking to…the cat!" she said. Normally, she was good at acting. But something about the Hyuga boy was unnerving- no doubt his eyes- which made her find herself unable to think of an adequate excuse.

"The cat isn't here." He said, "It's sleeping where you left it in the living room."

"Oh…does it really matter?" Arisa asked.

Neji looked at her for a while and sighed, "No it doesn't."

She walked out of the room, and he followed as they made their way to the living room.

Just before they rejoined their friends, "I'm going to find out what's happening."

She stopped, sighing and turning to him, before saying, "That's what I've been telling myself all day. I swear, if I actually knew, I might be more inclined to tell you."


	11. Chapter 9

After a morning of Naruto trying to surprise Mikoto by cooking her breakfast, and ultimately almost blowing up the entire house, he had been sent out of the house to find some other friend of his to pester before they all met up in the mall later that day. The breakfast he had made was a success...but he wasn't allowed any piece of it.

Incidentally, Neji Hyuga was the poor, unlucky soul who had the bad fortune to have his company.

He had wanted some time alone. A Hyuga never appreciated company. Especially not the company of silly blonde idiots. But despite everything, Naruto was a good friend of his.

"Where's Hinata?" Naruto asked.

Sighing, Neji said, "She's with Hanabi at the hospital. To get her ankle checked up on."

"Is she okay?" Naruto asked. The stupid blonde was very concerned about his cousin. Perhaps Hinata's affection for him was not as unrequited as previously thought.

"I'm sure if it were something more serious, Hiyashi would have personally seen to it that she met the doctor."

"Oh…well, we can't go see her then. Sakura's mom is home, so we can't go there either. And Ino Shikamaru and Choji have some family thing on…."

"Yes. So?"

"Let's go see Arisa!" Naruto shouted.

And, the blonde had now successfully diverted his attention to the mystery that had been bothering him for the last few days. The mystery had a name. Arisa Tsutsugami

She was truly incredibly annoying. Especially how she had avoided all of his questions the previous day.

A few minutes later Naruto said, not in an annoying way but in a concerned way, "Hey Neji, I don't think we should ask Arisa about her past until she decides to tell us."

"Why?" Neji replied, disinterested.

"Honestly? You're asking 'why?'? I thought you were smart enough to figure out by yourself!" Naruto said, astonished.

A few minutes passed with Neji not saying a word and Naruto waiting for Neji to talk. Then Naruto gave up and said, "Don't you think there's maybe a valid reason for her to keep quiet about things. If she wants to tell us, she will. Maybe Itachi is right- we have to earn her trust for her to tell us. If you were in her shoes, wouldn't you wait for the same?"

Neji took a moment to check that the person standing next to him _was_ in fact Naruto. He _did_ have a point, but Neji was just far to stubborn to admit that. Instead, he said, "That would depend on what her 'shoes' are. We don't even know the basics of what happened to her. Whatever we do know, we either had to force out of her mouth, or hack the info. She wasn't willing to tell us anything and I doubt she'll ever be."

"You seem like you have a _lot_ of faith in her!" Naruto said sarcastically.

"Then give me _one_ good reason _to_ have any faith in her."

"Give me one reason _not_ to." Naruto retorted.

Neji was silent for a few minutes after that statement. He was _very_ annoyed with Naruto at this point. Naruto was actually being _sensible and smart_ and it wasn't boding well with Neji. He _did_ have a point. _But so did Neji._

"I think we owe it to her to trust that she'll tell us eventually. It must be a pretty sad story for her to not say anything yet… Hinata was talking about how she never talks about herself…I guess she was right." Naruto said, cooling down a bit.

"Let's just hope she's not a psychotic serial killer…" Neji said, resignedly.

"You know what I think, Hyuga?" Naruto said as they started walking in the direction of Arisa's mansion.

"Since when did you start calling me 'Hyuga'?" Neji said suspiciously.

"Doesn't matter, but you want to know what I think, right?"

"Not necessarily, but you'll make me hear it either way. Go on…"

"Haha! You know me so well!" Naruto said laughing.

"I wish I didn't" Neji deadpanned.

Naruto pouted for a bit, and then said, "I think you like her. Like, _like_ like her. You should be nice to her, it will make _you_ feel good if you stop being so sadistic towards the people you like."

Romantic advice from _the Uzumaki_. Was the world coming to an end? And where on earth did he come up with such an absurd assumption?

"Oh, and you _like_ my cousin?" He said, turning the question on Naruto.

Naruto's cheeks coloured slightly as he said, "W-who put that idea in your head?!"

"You did."

* * *

 _"You hold the key to open the circle"_

Arisa stared at the line atop the book.

She blinked once or twice, and looked at it again.

Sure enough, those words were written on her book. In black ink. And not printed.

What the heck?

Why would that be written on her Math textbook?

Only one name came to mind: her math teacher, Kakashi Hatake.

She was almost tempted to dismiss it as a prank.

Almost.

Except for the fact that the words were almost identical to those which Danzo SHimura had told her the previous day. Albeit, in a slightly different manner, and the word 'key' was involved here.

Everything came crashing back to her. Everything that she had been told yesterday and its implications.

The world was crawling with demons. And Kakashi Hatake, an elder brotherly figure in her life for the last thirteen years, was a cutthroat bloodthirsty monster. Gaara, who was apparently a good friend of Naruto's, was a light bulb exploding demon. Then there were weird angels appearing on her movie screen and in the projector room afterwards. And had then attacked her and may have done worse if not for Neji walking in when he did. And then there was the Hyuga…he had apparently seen it too. That meant that she was either infected with a contagious mental disorder, or it was actually real. When he asked her that question, she was tempted to crawl into a cupboard somewhere and not come out. At all.

* * *

Neji and Naruto walked into the large mansion. Arisa hadn't answered the door. It had been the groundskeeper, Alfred- an old man who they knew from back when Hiruzen owned the place. Neji was reluctant to walk in without any knowledge of what Arisa could be doing, but in the end he decided against letting the blonde go in alone.

Almost as soon as they walked inside, they were drawn to the haunting music of a piano echoing throughout the halls.

"That piano is in the Library, if that's where you're looking to go." Alfred said from behind them.

As they walked closer to the large doors that led to the library, the music grew louder. It was a tune they recognised- a piano rendition of 'A time for us' by George Davidson. It had been used for a school play a couple of years ago. A maddening melancholy strain.

The piece came to an end as they walked silently into the library. Arisa sat at the piano, her eyes closed, her pale, slender hands coming to a rest over the ebony and ivory keys, as she leaned back, her bare feet pressing nimbly against the peddle, clad in a silky black robe which clung snugly to her skin, her hair pushed to one side.

She had likely just woken up- or was yet to prepare in any way for the day ahead.

She slowly stood up, her eyes still closed, as she turned to walk away from the piano. Opening her eyes, she stumbled back in surprise as she took in both he and Naruto.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, startled.

"Alfred let us in." Neji replied cooly, noting how she refused to look him in the face. Probably because she didn't want to answer any more questions about what he had seen the last night. "Naruto insisted on coming to ask if you wanted to join us in the afternoon."

"And then we heard you play that! It was so awesome! But super sad!" Naruto said.

"Join you in the afternoon...where?" she asked.

"We're going to the mall." Naruto said.

"Umm...okay. But not too late. I've got some reading to catch up on." she said.

After she moved away from the bay window where the piano was situated, and led them to a snug set of chairs in the well lit library, letting them sit down with her.

"There was another reason why we came here." Neji said after a moment's silence.

The two of them looked at him, confused.

"We wanted to know about you. About your past." he said.

Naruto looked at him, an angered expression on his face.

As for Arisa...she looked at him skeptically - or at least, that's what it looked like she was trying to do. He saw clean through it. To the suppressed panic bubbling beneath the surface at the thought of the answer to that.

After a long pause, she said, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

It was quite obvious she wasn't going to tell them everything. But something was better than nothing.

"You can trust us. Even if you don't trust us, you can tell us. We won't hold anything against you." he said.

 _Tell us what gave you that distant, vacant look in your eyes. That look, as though you've given up on living._

He completely ignored Naruto's warning look of 'stop what you're doing right now'

She looked up at him, and said, "Alright. I'll tell you...something."

Naruto's face lit up in disbelief and awe. He hadn't actually expected her to agree.

"Thirteen years ago, alot of us lost things close to us. Don't think I don't know about them. The terrorist attack on Konoha, the Uchiha Massacre, that funny business with Kumo. A lot of us lost people close to us. I lost my parents to a plane crash. I was in the plane at the time- I survived, although it was a complete fluke. An air hostess had stuffed me in a safety closet. She could have hidden there herself, but she chose to put me in there instead of saving herself. So, without parents, I moved to Suna to live with my aunt and cousin Cynthia."

Naruto's eye's widened, while Neji's narrowed. He had expected something like that. But that wasn't all.

"There's more." he said, before she could speak further. _I'm sure of it._

She laughed mirthlessly, saying, "There's always more. Why don't you ask the question you really want to ask, Neji? Is it how many people I've killed? Or how many times I've ruined people's lives?"

His eyes widened in surprise, before saying, "Neither. Because I don't believe in either. What I want to know..." he said standing up to move closer to her, "Is why you look as though you've given up on living?"

His words must have gotten through to her somewhere, for the manic facade she had just constructed melted away leaving a behind the same small girl from that day on the beach, looking frightened of something she didn't believe she could control- herself.

He looked at Naruto, watching their exchange with a shocked expression. A part of Neji wanted this to be a conversation between just the two of them- without any blonde interruptions- so that nobody else would see her so...vulnerable. But the more rational part told him that perhaps Naruto would be able to reach her better than he.

"I'll give you two examples of what has plagued me my whole life. Call it crazy coincidence. Call it madness. Call it me, being an attention seeking brat. But death and destruction has followed me my entire life." she said, her breath slowing as her volume sunk lower, almost inaudible.

"Two months after the plane crash, when I used to go to the park with Cynthia, just about when I was starting to recover from the trauma of my parents' death, I made a friend. Her name was Avry. A few weeks later, Avry's father tried to kill me. Avry stopped his killing blow by taking it herself. She was a kid, but she knew the concept of 'sacrifice' well enough to willingly die for another. It was almost as though he was in a trance. After he killed Avry instead of me, he turned the gun on himself. They both died- both because of me."

Neji's mind raced. ' _My whole life death and destruction have followed me.'_ she had said. That meant this was only one example of the countless instances? Perhaps the earliest example? He couldn't begin to comprehend how...scarring that may have been for her.

"I get if you don't want to hear anymore. You probably think I'm crazy already.." she said, eyes straying to her hands, seeing both of their expressions.

"What on earth are you talking about?!" Naruto shouted indignantly.

Arisa eyes widened, surprised.

"How come you hadn't told us yet? We could have helped…isn't it hard being all alone in a big house like this and having those ghosts still haunting your memories? You don't have to be all alone…" Naruto said.

Arisa looked at him astounded. "You're seriously saying that to a person who's watched countless people die before her? You've not even hit the tip of the iceberg."

"No matter how much more horrifying your past is, it won't throw any of us off. Trust me." Naruto said.

"Oh no, _you_ trust me. It will." She said with a semi laugh.

It was almost funny how Naruto was so blindly accepting of her. Neji found it obnoxiously stupid of him. But admittedly, if she was opening up to them, it gave him fewer reasons to dislike her. He almost felt pity for her. Something which she seemed to hate. But with a story like hers, who wouldn't feel pity for her?

"Try us." Naruto said with a smug look on his face.

"In the first year of middle school, an entire class of students were killed in cold blood. Only one kid survived. Guess who that was? Me. And guess who they blamed for it? Me."

"We've already heard about that one. From Gaara." Naruto interrupted.

"Well, you've not heard this part. The teacher who killed the rest of them would've killed me too. But I had a friend. Called Ema Yuko. She was about as close to a best friend I had. And she was cut in half in front of me. By that teacher. She was hacked to pieces. I remember his eyes. There was so much blood. Stained in red." This was one of her more painful memories"

How much blood had she seen in her life? More than anyone should ever have to see. Neji could literally see the cogs turning in Naruto's head, who said, "You're afraid to make friends and attachments because you don't want to risk losing anyone else." The blonde did have a way with words…

"Maybe." Her answer was vague. "When the police started asking questions and accusing me, I actually believed them. I believed that I was going insane, and I almost admitted to killing them all. The only thing I had to hang on to was the memory of Ema. The knowledge that I didn't kill her. And then Cynthia saved me from the rest…I've always had Cynthia to depend on."

Naruto's expression was more sorrowful than Arisa's. That person's ability to empathize with people really was amazing.

She laughed, the sound hollow. Like a shell. Neji felt the urge to reach out to her and make her stop. It was too painful for her. Seeing her like that- he was almost convinced that she would break any second. "After all this, you'd think I'd be numb to loss, right? Wrong. The one time I opened up to someone in the last five years, I watched her kill herself right in front of me, and blame the whole thing on me." she laughed again.

Her demeanor was still tranquil. But recounting so many bad memories couldn't have been good for her. She was careful to avoid looking them in the eye the whole time, not even through the reflection in the window.

Neji looked incredulously at the girl sitting in front of him. He had expected her story to be unsettling in the least, but this…She may try to act serene and confident, but he couldn't shake the feeling that some part of that was a façade. How long had it been since she openly depended on someone that was not herself?

"You think it's not bad? _My whole life people have died because of me._ Officially, its 36 visits to police HQ, 17 times suspected of criminal activities, 43 involvements in criminal cases, 15 court hearings, 37 involvements in murders and deaths which tie up with me. And that's only what the police have recorded. This stuff _keeps happening_. It _never stops._ "

So much about this enigma made sense to him now. But it still wasn't all. Neji had this nagging feeling that there was something she wasn't saying.

But he wasn't about to push her for a further explanation. She already looked like she was on the verge of some sort of psychological breakdown. Perhaps, in their want to understand her and know about her, they had walked in on a long stand battle within- a battle for sanity. Because at this moment, it seemed like she was on the losing side of that battle. And though Neji hated the feeling he got from seeing her that way, he didn't regret asking her. Despite the fact that Naruto was still glaring at him for broaching the topic.

Shaking slightly, after a while, Arisa said, "You know?" she turned to face them, "It's not uncommon that I think perhaps it would be better if I did die. At least that way, no one would die because of me. Or for me." She wore a sad, half smile.

That annoyed Neji more than it should have. Hit a little too close to home. "So you're suicidal?" he said sarcastically.

"I guess you could say so."

That pissed him off. He cursed the kind of things she would have had to go through to think that self death was the last resort. Perhaps the ghosts of the dead haunted her to the brink. But he didn't like that stream of thought from her.

So, he made it worse. Smiling mirthlessly, he said, "If that's your line of thought, then you _would_ be better off dead."

She stared at him blankly, blinking once or twice, shocked. However his words had affected him, they seemed to have warded off the small scared girl teetering between utter despair and insanity. He could almost see her returning to a somewhat tangible form of the Arisa they had grown to know.

Making things worse always worked.

Naruto on the other hand, was looking at him with an expression of horror and disgust, "Neji! How could you-" he started.

Arisa stopped him before he finished. "It's okay," she said, her voice steely. "I don't expect you to understand what its like to watch people you never even knew existed die in front of you- for you. To watch the people you care for slip away one by one."

"You don't seem to have lost your cousin's family yet."

"And you don't think there's not a reason why I'm distancing myself from them by moving here?!" she said, her eyes flickering with rage like fire across the vacant blank canvas.

"Surely most of those people _chose_ to die, to protect _you_? Rather than making up for their deaths, you're death would put theirs in vain."

"No!" she said, a half formed whisper on her lips.

Naruto was looking from Neji to Arisa, back and fourth, as though they were both nuclear bombs which could go off at any moment.

"If you think that dying is the answer, then it would be better if you never existed. Useless if you can't even value the lives of the people who have died for you. Or those alive who still care for you."

He didn't quite know what possessed him to speak like that- but it had gotten more of a reaction out of her than anything he had seen in the short few days he had known her. And he wanted to see more. To see how far she could go before breaking. And then, before her breaking, he wanted to be the one to scoop her out of the pit she carved for herself. Perhaps some part of that wish wouldn't be fulfilled. But he would try it nonetheless.

"How would you know?! You've lost nothing!" She cried.

She seemed to all of a sudden remember something and clasp her hands over her mouth, her voice inaudible, as she said, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean."

"It's okay." he said, mimicking her tone from before. "If in your perspective, if a person's parents are 'nothing', then I really have lost 'nothing'."

He turned and left the room. He heard an angry cry from Naruto as he left. No doubt, the idiot was confused and unsure as to whom he should pursue, and comfort.

The girl who he left behind in the room sank to her knees. He didn't see any way he could go back and help her. But Naruto should be able to handle that. Reverse psychology truly was a perverse thing.


	12. Chapter 10

"Apart from what you told us today, I don't know that much about your past." Naruto said, looking at Arisa, who had sunk to her knees, shivering.

"But I can tell you about myself. I think you know this already, but I'll say it anyway.

"I've not come into contact with as much death as you have, but I have once. When I was little, the terrorist attack on Konoha killed the then president. My father. In a single explosion, my father, mother, and everyone I knew from that house died. I was the only one who survived. And the people blamed me for it.

They called me a cursed child. They ostracised me. They even tried to pin it on Mikoto for taking me in.

I had Sasuke and Sakura. I didn't have much else.

But you know what I learned with that? I learned that you can never give up. Thirteen years later, I've tried and I've tried and I've kept trying. I have an amazing set of friends and teachers. They're more than friends to me. They're family. Most of the town's people accept me now. I've found the most amazing Ramen place to ever exist. And I've even found this really cute girl who I think I like but I'm not sure if she likes me back yet."

He heard her laugh a little at that. Great. It was working.

"You know what Arisa? You can't give up either. You've got us now. If you lost people before, you just have to make sure you don't again. And I think Neji was trying to get you to realise that. You know he didn't really mean what he said."

Slowly, she looked up at him, nodding as she got to her feet.

"You know what Naruto?" she asked, mimicking his words. "You're right. I'm sorry you had to see that...It's been a long time since I've been that close to a relapse. But I guess I should thank you. Both of you." he saw the ghost of a smile on her face, and he broke into a grin.

"And I think, you shouldn't worry at all about if this girl likes you back or not. Because the only thing you need to do, is muster up the courage to ask her out." she said with a teasing smile.

Before he could reply, she said, "I'm just gonna go freshen up and get changed and then we can go meet up with the others, and I can say sorry to Neji too, okay?" she said, before leaving the large, well lit library.

The phone in his pocket suddenly started vibrating. Naruto had completely forgotten about that phone. It wasn't his own- it was Neji's. His own phone had stayed in the house while he got kicked out. He looked at the caller ID- Hinata.

Jumping slightly, he answered the call, "Hey!" He said, goofily.

"N-Naruto?" Hinata asked meekly, "W-why do you have Neji's phone?"

"That doesn't really matter…Listen, Hinata, I need your help." Naruto was actually looking quite serious.

Anyone who would have seen Hinata at that moment would have seen a large blush creep onto her cheeks.

"I need you to capture 'Neji Hyuga', rogue insulter!" He shouted over the phone.

Naruto recounted everything that had happened in a short three sentence summary, to which Hinata said, "O-ok, I'll find him."

"Great!"

Agreed, Hinata was right in thinking that Naruto was over exaggerating. Nevertheless, she went on to go look for Neji.

* * *

Neji walked along the chilly streets of Konoha.

They were enveloped in fog. The same kind of fog which Arisa had seen in her grandfather's mansion. The same mystical, numinous fog.

In fact, it was not fog that covered the streets of Konoha, it was mist. And it wasn't the whole of Konoha that was covered in fog; it was only that certain area. The area where there was ancient ruins. However these facts were not known to Neji Hyuga.

It really _had_ been a bad idea for him to leave the house that morning without a proper winter jacket. It was going to be a long winter which would cut into half of autumn. But who could blame Neji for not wearing one. It had been relatively sunny in the morning for a winter day. The roads had suddenly enveloped themselves in fog. As he walked closer to his destination- the town square- the fog became thicker. Though, Neji did not notice that. He was too busy thinking about the girl who he had left on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

He wondered if Naruto understood what he was trying to do-probably not, it was highly unlikely. What he said was cruel and irrational. It would either cause her to deny what he said- which in turn would lead to Naruto adding a few words of his own, and thus helping her, or it she would agree- in which case Naruto would launch into his 'therapy', which would hopefully help her. Either way, it would work out with both of their inputs. Like any logical problem always did. But that didn't quell the unease which followed him since he left that house.

He was about to turn back and see what was going on, when he crossed by a shop which he did not recognize. That struck him as off, seeing as he knew every place in Konoha. He decided to check out the shop nevertheless. The shop was quite intriguing- the windows were stained glass ones, but covered from the inside with grime, there was a smell of incense emitting from the shop and, it looked _ancient_.

He entered the shop, and it was apparently empty, and dimly lit. His entrance was announced by the clink of several wind chimes and dream catchers which hung by the door. There were very little passageways between the large oddly shaped objects masked by white sheets and opaque veils. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet, and he saw a table nearby. It was covered with strange class orbs, an antique globe, and several animal skeletons and skulls.

Curiosity piqued, he moved further into the room. He was greeted by an old, weird gypsy, who was standing beside a large armoire. His attention was drawn to the armoire, which seemed to be from the 17th century. It was very large, and stood a foot away from the wall. It was so tall that it seemed to extend to the floor above. On a pedestal next to it, was a grotesque bust with crudely carved features, and atop that sat an ornately decorated crown. It was studded with dark gems. That brought him to the woman's hand, which rested upon the crown. He looked at her face.

The woman smiled mystically, and said, "Come in," She didn't give him a chance to say anything, but instead turned around and walked away from the armoire, into a dark corridor. He could almost _smell_ the cobwebs. Since when had a place like that existed in Konoha? The most antique place they knew was Hiruzen's mansion. But that was well kept.

"You have a troubled aura." The woman mused.

What now? Silly Carnival tricks? As if Neji was going to fall for that…he scoffed skeptically.

"Do not disdain me." She said harshly, and then turned to face him, peering into his face, "Well…" she said, with a softened tone, "You look like Hisashi. Perhaps you _are_ him?"

What the heck? This hag supposedly knew his dad? Highly unlikely...his dad did not associate with …comedians? He could think of no better term to describe her. She was surely insane. "No. Hisashi is my dad. Hisashi Hyuga."

She leaned closer to him and took a strand of his hair in her hand, bringing it to her nose and smelling it.

 _That's it. She's mad. I need to get out of here…_ he thought. He was about to reach for his cell phone, when he realized that he had left it with a certain blonde idiot. _Typical._

"I don't think so. Unless you're telling me your age spans over eons. What year _is_ it in the outside world anyway?"

Neji thought she was talking nonsense, but he chose to play along with it- it wasn't as nonsensical as some of his friends (namely, a certain blonde idiot, and a certain bushy browed, youth obsessed idiot) . He didn't really have any other option, seeing as he no longer knew where the door was.

She led him up a dark twisted staircase, which felt as though it would break under their feet, while Neji answered her question, irrespective of how weird it was, "It is the year 2023."

"Then, am I to assume _you,_ Hisashi's son, are over one thousand years old?"

"Of course not." What crap was she spouting?

"Well then, I guess you're not. It might've been possible, I mean, this is _Hisashi_ we're talking about. But you're not the man I am referring to. You have his essence in you, though." She said, reaching the second floor.

She led him to what looked like the upper half of the armoire he had seen below, and he was astounded at the height- it went through the ceiling of the second floor as well. How many floors were in this wretched house?

She said, as though reciting a chant, with her voice taking a more gravelly and primordial address, "You must not doubt yourself. You alone can stand outside of space and time itself. If you are not constant, then everything will waver."

He swore he could have seen wisps of eerily glowing smoke coming out of her eyes and mouth. He stepped back, recoiling as she opened the armoire and took out a round object covered in velvet black silk.

"Take it, you'll need it when the time comes." She said, placing the item in his hand. It felt heavy, as though made of metal.

He could hear various doors opening and snapping shut, and his ears rand with the sound of many clock hands ticking simultaneously, the creaking of cogs turning in a clock tower, and the gushing of a rapid flowing river . Beyond any point of logical reasoning, he took the item and turned around. The floor gave way beneath his feet, and he landed in a heap of wreckage on the floor below, deposited right before the door. Not severely injured, the noises around him growing all the more loud, he heard a cackling laughter from the hole he left in the floor above him. He got up, and ran out of the front door.

The ringing in his ears stopped the second he stepped through the door. The sun shone meekly overhead, as was characteristic of autumn in Konoha.

He realized he was still holding the object in his hand which the old gypsy had given him. His first instinct was to throw it as far away from him as possible, but instead he chose to remove the velvet cloth covering it.

Beneath it lay an old antique pocket watch. It looked tarnished, but on closer inspection, the material appeared to be gold. The clock's face itself was…odd. For starters, the middle of it was made of glass, and revealed the inner cogs and screws. It almost seemed to ….glow? But that was impossible; it was probably just reflecting the sunlight. Another odd feature, the gold rim of the covering glass was carved ornately, and though he could not discern what the carvings depicted, they seemed ancient. Not something used even in the era where pocket watches were in use. A discolored chain hung from the top. And the most unusual feature of this watch- it did not have normal minutes and hours hands as was characteristic of all time pieces. No, it had seven hands, all spinning randomly, and rather than twelve hour divisions, it had seventeen divisions.

It may be old, but it must have been expensive. It was wrong to accept something like that without paying anything. Not that he wanted it, it was probably a worthless piece of junk. What good was a watch that couldn't tell the time?

He turned around to go back into the shop and pay the woman, but came face to face with an open field. The open field, he realized, that lay behind the church's clock tower. But there was no shop, or building, that was even remotely like where he had been minutes before. He took a step closer, just to make sure there really was nothing there, but the only thing he saw was the long, weed peppered pasture, with the occasional daisy hiding among the grass blades.

What on earth?

"What'cha doin'?"

He felt someone's breath against his shoulder and spun round.

Tenten was standing on the pavement, a bright smile on her face as she held up two fingers in peace.

"Moreover, what are _you_ doing here?" He asked, quickly hiding away the pocket watch. If anyone heard what he had to say about that, they would question his sanity and put him in the same boat as Naruto. Not a desirable feat.

"A little early bird let slip that you were a little more than mean to our kitten today…" She teased.

He grimaced, muttering, "You don't know the least of it…"

"Don't I? Well then, explain." She demanded, walking beside him.

Neji gave her an incredible short explanation of what had happened earlier in the morning.

Her expression was one of worry and increasing concern as he spoke. "And here I felt bad for her about her parents…Are you guys sure she's still sane? It's almost she's jinxed or hexed or something. We should do something to help her…"

Although he knew that Tenten was blunt by nature and her saying that didn't mean that she liked Arisa any less, it still annoyed him.

Noticing his glare, she said, "Well, what would _you_ have me believe?"

"Perhaps that she's a victim of incredibly poor circumstance? If you say stuff like that, you'll have a lot more than an angry Naruto on your hands…."

Her eyes widened and she said as though scolding herself, "You're right. That was really mean of me! Besides, Arisa is real nice. Cute." She giggled and added, "Lee set me on your case and rushed to her house as soon as he heard. Said something about preserving Konoha's youthful springtime. It's still autumn though, so who knows what he's on about..." she started laughing.

Neji groaned in annoyance. If Naruto was overwhelming, Lee would be downright unbearable, and that was something which Arisa definitely did not need.

"There you are!Neji!We've been looking for you everywhere!" A panting Hinata ran up to them.

Neji looked at her worriedly. "Shouldn't you avoid running with that ankle?" He asked.

"Well you didn't give me much choice! And how could you be so mean to Arisa?!"

She looked cross. Although she already pretty much knew the answer.

"Have you spoken to her?" He asked, voicing his concern.

"No, I haven't. But Naruto said that she'd be fine…You should apologize to her! And she'll apologize too…"

It was remarkable how Hinata's stutter all but vanished when she wasn't with Naruto…

Tenten, who had been watching their exchange, now hooked arms with the two Hyuga cousins, and said, "Well then, Back to Arisa's house it is!

* * *

"It's the 31st October today." Ino said.

"Halloween!" Naruto exclaimed.

"And the point to that is..." Arisa asked.

"Okay so there's a huge Halloween masquerade party every year in Konoha, real mature and with cool themes every year. It's tonight. SO, today we're getting a few finishing touches to our costumes- and getting a new one for you and Sasuke since Naruto somehow burned Sasuke's. So at the mall..." Tenten explained.

"We're going Halloween Shopping!" Ino exclaimed, enthusiastic. "And then we come crash at my place and I design and do up the makeup and effects for all of you!"

Sakura quietly leaned over to Arisa and added, "She's insanely good at this stuff."

"Okay." Arisa said. She had already tried to apologize to Neji when he showed up, and that had ended in an awkward moment for both of them with a flustered tension remaining between them.

Now, with the addition of Sakura, Ino and Kiba, they were set to go to the mall for their Halloween escapades. It was going to be a long day.


End file.
